


The RK Family

by PrepSchoolAda



Series: Wholesome Ada/RK100 Universe [4]
Category: Detroit Evolution - Fandom, Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Heavy Rain
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Found Family, Inspired by Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, M/M, Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, Post-Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, Wholesome Family Fun, bit of angst in chapter 5 be warned, i just made a lot of memes about the rk family squabbling and now i'm writing a fic about it lmao, it's totally valid if you don't see androids in the same line as siblings, like i am a huge echo and ripple stan, ooc probably (not intentional I'm just not great at character writing lmao), this started as a meme and now i can't stop thinking about it so here we are, total crack fic with a little fluff in ther, very gay wholesome family fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24115357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrepSchoolAda/pseuds/PrepSchoolAda
Summary: [[set after the events of Detroit: Evolution. North and Ada are girlfriends because I say so. I wrote a fic about that too but they're not... entirely connected? It's not essential reading is what I'm saying here. Anyway enjoy my RK crack fic]]Driven by curiosity and a burning need to find her purpose, Ada is joined by her brothers - Markus, Connor and Nines - as they go on a road trip adventure to find RK models 300-700 and check on the rest of their RK family.
Relationships: Ada (Detroit: Evolution) & Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Ada (Detroit: Evolution) & Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Ada (Detroit: Evolution) & Upgraded Connor | RK900, Ada/North, Connor & Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900, Hank Anderson/Connor, Markus/Simon (Detroit: Become Human), Upgraded Connor | RK900 & Markus, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Wholesome Ada/RK100 Universe [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767982
Comments: 43
Kudos: 72





	1. Ada's Successors

**Author's Note:**

> oh my god this is a terrible idea oh well. also for some reason i like to write fanfic while i'm super sleep deprived so. this is a mess lmao
> 
> EDIT: this was???? Linked on the Octopunk tumblr page? Oh wow, I was wondering where y’all came from! Hello there! Nice to have you here! I guess Michelle read my crack fic, that’s hilarious. If I ever get good at angst and/or in-character writing I’ll be sure to let you know!
> 
> I hope you enjoy should you choose to read the whole thing, I appreciate you stopping by!

There was a sacred tradition taking place that evening in the city of Detroit. To most, it was just a normal Thursday night. In truth, it was anything but. Underneath the stars, in a world unseen by anyone other than the ritual's participants, something deeply cursed was taking place. 

Four androids were taking part; the first RK model in existence, Ada, sat perfectly upright in safe mode while her girlfriend North lay across the couch and resting her head on Ada's lap, content and lost in a particularly fruitful game of Animal Crossing. The android leader, Markus, was in his office, his partner Simon politely letting everyone who came near his workspace know that Markus wasn't seeing anyone without an appointment at the present time. The famed ex-deviant hunter Connor was sat next to a giant St. Bernard dog, and despite appearing unconscious to those around him, still managed to pet this dog through his stasis through muscle memory alone. And perhaps the most astonishing sight of all; the most advanced terminator ever built, RK900 (who had since been dubbed 'Nines'), was sat in shorts and knee high socks in the apartment of one Gavin Reed. Despite merciless teasing from his siblings, the socks remained through thick and thin.

The world each of them escaped to in stasis was one of utter chaos; the weekly RK game night.

They met in a different sibling's interface every evening to wage ruthless wars upon each other over human-made board games. This evening they had all met in Connor's, in the Zen Garden he had built. He'd hadn't changed it much after becoming deviant, and it was by far Ada's favourite one. Markus' interface was a huge library, which always made her want to talk quietly which wasn't as fun, and Nines' was Gavin's apartment. She didn't much like it there, it was far too human and smelled too much of coffee. She had yet to build a mind palace unique to herself. She wasn't sure what she wanted to live in when she went into stasis, so settled for the peaceful darkness a human may experience in a dreamless sleep. She rarely went into stasis except for these game nights in any case; she was too busy enjoying every second she had to spend with North.

Despite each of them having an absolute blast, they were all yelling at each other; Markus had just won a game of Jenga, and Nines was insisting that foul play had to be involved.

"Markus bumped the table! You all saw it!" Nines insisted adamantly. Connor guffawed sarcastically, accustomed to Nines's nature as a sore loser.

"I would never bump the table!" Markus asserted. "Granted, I did do that last week when Ada was beating me. But I didn't this time!"

"I knew it!" yelled Ada, in a mixture of triumph and anger. "Write it on last week's scoreboard!"

Markus dramatically wiped non-existent dust from the shoulders of his jacket in a display of faux-arrogance. "Oh, but that victory was so sweet, Ada. It's true what they say; paradise isn't a place! It's a feeling!"

Ada crossed her arms huffily and muttered, "Yeah, well, your ex's bed is a place."

"Wait, what?"

"She said she hates your face!" said Nines petulantly.

After a long, harrowing debate and many cutting remarks that would have ended any other relationship, it was agreed that Markus had won that particular game of Jenga, but Ada would be retroactively awarded the victory from last week that she had been denied.

And just like that, they all regained their composure and became perfectly civil. You'd think there had been no savage war over Jenga just moments before.

"That was fun!" said Ada, beaming. "Same time next week?"

"Yes!" said Connor just as happily. "Bye everyone, I'm going to destroy you all next time!"

"The day I'm beaten in anything by the guy who once tried to take my king in a game of chess will be such a sad day for me," said Markus in faux-despair, and then he vanished.

"Goodbye everyone, I will remember you all in therapy!" This was Nines's usual sign-off.

Ada was about to go too, then hesitated.

"Is everything alright?" said Connor, cleaning away the ruins of the Jenga tower.

Ada smiled to herself. "Sometimes it just hits me that... this is where we are now. After everything. We all went from an android revolution to... Zen Garden game night."

Connor nodded. "Yeah. It's the best."

Ada chuckled in agreement, but with all due respect Connor didn't really get it, none of them did. Connor and Markus had never hurt anyone, programming be damned, and Nines had been awoken before he could do any damage. Ada hadn't had that chance. She'd stolen lives, she'd ruined them completely, and here she was with a second chance in life. She'd never say it aloud, but there was no way any of her brothers were more grateful for Zen Garden game nights as she was.

"Goodnight, Connor. Give Sumo a bear hug for me."

And she meant it. The only thing she loved more than Hank's giant, fluffy, heavy pillow posing as a dog was North.

She walked through Connor's garden for a little while, enjoying the blossoms of the springtime setting, before she too went back to the real world.

*

When Ada awoke, she lovingly stroked North's hair.

North looked up at her with a grin. "Hey, you're back! How was game night?"

"Markus finally admitted he bumped the table last week," said Ada. 

"Oh yeah, can confirm he's terrible for that. He owes me like, nine Jenga victories."

"How's your island?"

"Turnips were SO cheap today!" North said gleefully, sitting up next to Ada and discarding her console. She smiled contentedly as she looked at Ada.

"You're always so happy when you come back from game night," said North gently. "It warms my cold, dark heart."

Ada rolled her eyes. North's heart was anything but.

"You're welcome to join us, North, everyone loves you."

"Nah, it seems like an RK thing," said North. "Plus I still don't know RK900 all that well."

Ada sighed. "You know it's Nines."

"I can't use that name!" said North, giggling. "It's just too... precious!"

"Come on, don't knock it, his boyfriend gave it to him."

"That just makes it more precious! Adorable little terminator!" laughed North. When she'd calmed down, she became pensive.

"It does make you wonder, though," said North. "You know, RK900. There's you, Markus and then... just this huge gap between you guys and Connor. Where did the other RKs go?"

Ada paused. She thought about that more than she let on and North knew it. Out of all of the RKs, she'd always considered herself the one least worthy of redemption, which made her all the more overjoyed that she'd finally achieved it. She would have gone on killing if not for Nines; her goal had simply been "evolve under any circumstances". By nature it had been unachievable. Given the absence of android serial killers, she had always assumed that her successors were less inclined to murder than her, but she always wondered what became of them. With every passing Zen Garden game night, she wondered.

"You know, I... I wouldn't change our ridiculous little family for the world," said Ada thoughtfully, leaning her head back to watch the ceiling. "But I think about Connor's predecessors and... do they need family as much as I did after I deviated?"

North clenched her teeth. "It's a nasty business, being out there on your own. I don't know what I would have done if I'd never found the original Jericho."

Ada turned to look at North. "I wanna meet them, but at the same time I'm terrified to."

North raised an eyebrow. "What have you got to be afraid of? You're the ultimate badass."

"That is certainly high praise coming from you," said Ada coyly. "I just don't know how I'd handle it if they didn't want anything to do with me. I think about them all so often and... maybe they won't want me around as much as Markus, Connor and Nines do."

"Who the hell cares?" said North. "I love you, your family loves you, your friends love you. You don't need them in your life, really, you just wanna meet them. There's no harm in that. And if you did, you'd stop wondering about what could be."

Ada tended to overthink, and North never did, so it was really a blessing for Ada to have North around to snap her out of her would-be spirals.

"I guess there's no harm in it," said Ada, more to herself than anyone else. "I'd have no idea where to start looking, though."

"As much as I hate to suggest it, would anyone at Cyberlife be willing to help?"

Ada sat up, quickly. Now there was a thought.

*

Dr Maria Schaeffer finally returned to her office where Ada was waiting.

"RK100? It's nice to see you again. Though I was very surprised when they told me you were here."

Ada had requested an audience with Maria upon her arrival at Cyberlife. Maria knew what she'd done and who she really was, but was also aware of her deviancy and her adherence to the straight and narrow path. She was the only one at Cyberlife she felt comfortable approaching, and perhaps the only one who could help her.

"Dr Schaeffer," said Ada as respectfully as possible. "I'm just going to cut to the chase. I want to find the other RKs."

Maria raised an eyebrow. "What for, Ada?"

Ada shook her head. "No, it's not like that. I don't want to... evolve anymore. I just want to meet them. I feel like I need to know who they are."

Maria sighed. "Ada, I know you're close with other RK models, but it's not always so simple. Families are complicated enough for humans, let alone androids."

"What do you mean?" said Ada, her voice trembling ever so slightly.

Maria gave Ada a look that verged on pity. Ada wasn't so sure she liked it. 

"The RK line is an unusual one, Ada, as you know," said Maria carefully. "You're all prototypes, and usually created in the interest of engineering deviancy. After Markus and before Connor, however, the goal of the RK line became unfocused. All the prototypes that came in between were very different - some were attempts to create what Connor eventually became, and others were made... because Elijah Kamski got very bored, for lack of a better way to put it."

Ada chortled in spite of her vendetta against Kamski. She didn't trust a man who gave androids the incredibly inconvenient and unnecessary ability to cry.

"In other words, Ada, they are very unpredictable. I don't know how they'll react to you or your brothers," said Maria with a small and almost sad smile.

Ada, however, remained determined. "I want them to have all the same opportunities as I did, Dr Schaeffer. I want them to know me. I want them to know that they have the option to be a part of our lives."

Maria averted Ada's gaze for a moment, then exhaled. "For security reasons, I cannot tell you where they are. But I can tell you what they were designed for so maybe you can figure it out for yourself."

She shot Ada a mischievous smile. "And of course, I promise that if you choose to scan for possible RKs, you won't be reprimanded by Cyberlife. Not on my watch, at least."

Ada grinned. "Thank you so much, Dr Schaeffer!"

"Don't thank me yet, Ada," said Maria, forcing a smile. She typed away on her computer and then carefully (and somewhat reluctantly) told Ada everything she needed to know. Ada was careful to commit it all to memory.

"RK300 was the earliest attempt to create an android detective. It failed rather spectacularly, but Elijah insisted that RK300 would not be disassembled, and was kept at Cyberlife for further testing for years. After the revolution he was freed and we no longer kept tabs on him. He is the only one I couldn't tell you the location of even if I wanted to. RK400... Ada, you may want to skip this one. I apologise in advance if you do find her. When I mentioned that there were certain prototypes that Elijah made simply because he was bored, I was indeed referring to RK400. All I can tell you about her is that she has much more in common with an YK500 model than with any RK we ever manufactured here at Cyberlife. RK500 was designed to be what I can only describe as an insufferable intellectual. You may end up killing him if he has retained his rather condescending software. I see no reason why the other RKs won't have gone deviant by this point, but I hope most of all that RK500 is deviant. His programming gave him an exhausting personality. RK600 was designed to blend in with humans, and never even disclose that he was an android. This was done so that he could properly imitate them, and hopefully speed up the process of deviancy. He will be the most difficult to find. RK700 is an artist. She will be the easiest to locate. I believe some among your family has already seen some of her work."

Ada's face was unreadable. She was drinking in all of this information as fast as possible, disappearing into her mind palace to create a map of everything Maria was telling her. It was all incredibly vague, but she remained determined. She sensed that Maria was giving her this information in as discouraging a fashion as possible in hopes of deterring her. It was a futile gesture. She was going to find every single one of them, no matter how long it took.

"Thank you again, Dr Schaeffer," said Ada sincerely as she arose from her chair. "I can't thank you enough."

*

"So, I don't think I can come to game night next week," said Ada as she took one of Connor's pawns. They had all met in Markus' interface this time. 

Nines raised an eyebrow. "Is this because you lost at poker tonight? You can't win them all, Ada."

Ada rolled her eyes. "Okay, first off, you cheated and I swear to rA9 I'll prove it someday. But no, it's not that. I'm going somewhere tomorrow and I don't know when I'll be back."

"Well that's vague," said Markus.

Ada shrugged. "It's um... it's quite big. I don't want to freak you out."

The more time Ada had spent alone with the idea of finding the other RKs, the more reluctant she became to tell anyone else except North about it. North had been overjoyed that Ada was taking the leap, but Ada found herself unsure when it came to telling her brothers about it. Just because Ada wanted to meet the other RKs, it certainly didn't mean that they did. They hadn't even found Ada by choice, after all, and weekly game nights had been her idea. Did the others even enjoy them or did they just not want to upset her?

"Well, you being a serial murderer in your past life didn't scare us off, so try us," said Connor. Nines flinched ever so slightly, not quite on board with those kinds of jokes yet. Ada understood this sentiment completely.

Ada stared very hard at the chess board. "I visited Dr Schaeffer. She told me about the other RKs."

"Oh?" said Nines.

"I... I want to meet them," said Ada. "I don't know what I'm expecting, honestly. I just think about them a lot; what they're like, who they are, if they're like us. I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment but... I don't think I'll be satisfied until I know them."

Connor blinked. "Okay, Ada. What time are we leaving tomorrow?"

Ada's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

She honestly hadn't expected them to come even if they wanted to. They all had other responsibilities, after all.

Markus shrugged. "If the human president can take so many golf vacations, I'm sure I can take a week or two to find long lost family."

Ada chuckled in disbelief.

"Plus if Connor and I take simultaneous vacation days, Gavin and Hank will have to partner up at some point and that's hilarious to me," said Nines. Connor's eyes widened with glee.

"Yes, yes please, I need that to happen!" said Connor happily.

"Oh wow, you guys... wanna go on a weird RK hunting adventure with me?" said Ada, completely bemused.

"That's a bit aggressive, Ada," said Markus. "Let's call it an RK family road trip."

"Road trip hijinx!" said Connor, practically bouncing in place.

"Okay, let's just be careful we don't get too excited," said Ada. "Dr Schaeffer was pretty clear that we might not like what we find."

"Who cares?" said Markus. "It would be different if we didn't have each other, but we do. If the other RKs want anything to do with us, great. If not, it's not like we're alone."

Ada smiled. "Those were my exact thoughts when I talked to North and Dr Schaeffer about this."

"You still haven't told us what time, you know," said Connor.

"Um... 4pm, I guess?" said Ada.

Markus clapped his hands together. "Sweet, plenty of time to get everything in order. See you all in the morning."

And with that, the cursed road trip to end all cursed road trips was ago.

*

Ada slung her backpack over her shoulders and headed out into the garden she shared with North.

"Okay, time for me to go," she said, approaching North who was watering one of their rose bushes.

North turned around. She was smiling, but her eyes were telling a different story. She looked worried.

"I'll be fine, I promise," said Ada, taking North's hand. "And I'm going to call you so much you'll be absolutely sick of me. You won't even want me back here, I swear to rA9 I will be that annoying."

North smiled and nodded. "I just really, really hope it goes well. You've made peace with the fact your heart might get broken from this, but I haven't."

"You don't have to protect me, North," said Ada, tenderly. "It's something I have to do, you get that."

North nodded, squeezing Ada's hand. "Yeah, I do. Don't you all go killing each other, okay?"

Ada raised an eyebrow. "No promises."

North laughed and hugged her tightly. "I'll see you soon."

Ada buried her face in North's shoulder. 

The moment was interrupted by the sounds of a very loud, very unhealthy car, and the even louder passengers within it.

"I still don't understand why we didn't get a self-driving car."

"They're too fast, we couldn't play any road trip games! Have you even been on a road trip before, Markus?"

"Why no, Connor, I'm far too busy running the android nation!"

"Remove the proverbial stick from your ass, Markus!"

"I WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND"-

When Ada turned to face her dysfunctional but cherished family, Nines was mouthing something through the window. She figured out after a few seconds he was saying, 'This garden is amazing!'

She grimaced and nodded her head towards North. It had all been her, after all.

"Alright, duty calls," said Ada. She kissed North and then headed towards the ancient monstrosity she could smell from her garden that Markus was driving.

She threw her backpack in the trunk and climbed into the back seat with Nines.

"Right," she said, leaning back and crossing her legs. "Let's go RK hunting!"

Nines massaged his temples. "Seatbelt, Ada. And please stop calling it that, it sounds so sinister."

As they drove off, Connor chanted 'RK road trip'! After twenty minutes and a bit of coaxing, everyone else was chanting it too.


	2. RK300, the Origami Agent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang find RK300, and discover he has a much more complicated history than Dr Schaeffer let on. When found face to face with him, Ada discovers a surprising new ability gained from her previous years of striving towards evolution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> michelle totally called it lmao anyway here's a heavy rain crossover

Ada uploaded all the information she had to Markus, Connor and Nines' respective operating systems, and soon they were all exchanging theories and game plans.

"So, how are we doing this?" said Connor. "Dr Schaeffer said that RK600 would be the hardest to find, should we look for him first?"

"I'm not so sure I want to waste time that could be spent finding the others," said Ada. "If we find the rest first, we might even stumble into RK600 as we go along. He was designed to blend in with the humans even more than any of us, I'm not certain we can find him by looking."

"That's leaving a lot to chance," Nines pointed out. "We can't assume they're all in Detroit. While it's certainly the epicentre of deviants, it's not the only home for androids. Just think of how many undocumented androids live in Canada, for example."

"Should we maybe have discussed this before I started driving?" Markus winced.

"Sorry, Markus," said Ada with a remorseful sigh.

"This was your idea, Ada," said Connor. "Would you like to choose the first RK we look for?"

Ada grimaced. "I say we just go in number order. I'm sure we can all agree on that."

"RK300, the android detective..." said Markus thoughtfully. "He hasn't worked as a detective for years, it won't be easy to find him."

"In my experience, down-on-their-luck detectives can easily be found in bars," said Connor with a hint of a smile.

Nines smirked. "Great, let's check all the bars in Detroit, then. Easy."

"He might not be in Detroit anymore, as you said," Ada pointed out.

Nines became solemn. "But he would have worked in Detroit..." said Nines. "Cyberlife apparently produced three prototype detectives, and two of them are currently working in the DPD. We could easily research if there were any incidents around the time the RK300 was manufactured..."

"Wait!" Connor suddenly exclaimed. He turned in his seat to face Nines. "The Origami Agent!"

Nines' entire face widened. "No... noooooo... you think so?"

"Who's the Origami Agent?" Ada said, her voice dripping with curiosity as she sat upright.

"Almost thirty years ago now," said Connor. "He was a human FBI Agent, his name was Norman Jayden. He assisted the police department in Philadelphia in capturing a serial killer known as the Origami Killer. It was his magnum opus, in a way, but he was a deeply troubled man. He was addicted to triptocaine"-

"Tripto-what now?" Markus piped up from the driver's seat.

"Honestly, no one knows," said Nines. "The point is, he used an Augmented Reality Interface to collect evidence and solve crimes - ARI, they called it. It was strictly experimental, Jayden was one of the few FBI agents using it. Keep in mind this was almost thirty years ago, technology was not where it is now, it was highly unpredictable. He used it far more than he should have been allowed to. His brain became affected by it, to the point where his consciousness was uploaded to it when he passed."

"Rumour has it that Cyberlife got hold of it and used it in android experiments, but there was never any evidence," Connor continued. "It became a conspiracy theory, an urban legend. If the stories are true, Cyberlife hid them well."

"Not well enough," said Markus. "I just looked it up"-

"Don't Google stuff while driving!" said Connor.

"Too late," Markus smirked. "There's an Officer Jayden working in Cleveland, Ohio. And get this - he has quite the unemployment history. He's been passed around different police departments like a hot potato."

"Who passes a hot potato?" Nines muttered to himself, in constant awe of strange English expressions.

"That's gotta be our guy!" said Ada, her eyes narrowed but her lips spreading into a smile.

"I don't know, Ada, it's just a hunch," Nines said cautiously.

Ada shrugged. "Your entire line of work is based on following hunches, Nines."

"Well, I feel attacked," said Connor.

"Alright," said Markus. "I guess I'm driving to Ohio."

Connor frowned. "If this is true and RK300 is taken from a broken human being's consciousness, it's both lazy and unethical of Cyberlife's design department."

Ada sighed. "Sounds just like Elijah Kamski to me."

*

After hours of driving, several games of I, Spy and a heated debate between Markus and Connor concerning the best Police Academy movie, the group checked into a motel in Cleveland for the night.

"Let's get some rest, tomorrow we find Officer Jayden," said Ada earnestly.

"So we just walk into the precinct and ask for him?" said Markus.

"Failing that, there's always the bars," Nines said with a chuckle.

Ada grimaced. "I'm gonna let North know what's going on, I'll be back in a moment."

"Great, because I brought so many board games with us," said Markus, proudly emptying a large bag containing all the Zen Garden game night hits onto the table.

"Oh wow," said Nines, gazing upon the boxes as they fell from the bag. "Sorry, I very often forget that board games exist outside of our mind palaces."

"Sounds like a plan," said Ada, giving a half-hearted thumbs up and heading to the room's balcony.

Ada pulled out her phone and leaned against the railing. She decided to just text North. It had been a long day, and North would surely understand that she didn't feel like having a real-time conversation. After she'd sent it, she found that Connor had joined her.

"Hey," said Connor, hands in his pockets. "You okay?"

Ada nodded, her eyebrows knit together. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Connor shrugged. "You've had a long week."

Ada snickered. "You could say that. But I'm fine, really."

Connor paused for a moment. "It's really important to you that we find these RKs."

Ada averted eye contact for a moment then nodded. "I just want to make sure they're okay. I wasn't okay before Nines found me. Or, I found him, I suppose... it feels so long ago."

Connor seemed to pick up on Ada's uncomfortable recollection of her pre-deviancy past. "It's not who you are anymore," He insisted.

"I know, Connor, I know that," said Ada. "But I have left... giant stains on people's lives. It's something I carry with me every day, no matter how much I've changed now. I don't want anyone else to carry that burden with them. I just want to find the other RKs and... maybe stop them from ending up like me? Maybe assure them that there are people out there that want them to be okay? I don't expect you to understand, you never did anything to hurt anyone even when your programming tried to make you"-

"You need to stop that, Ada," said Connor firmly.

Ada frowned. "I'm not looking for pity or reassurance here, Connor, I'm just stating the facts. I'm the only known android serial killer, and it's an exceedingly unpleasant title. With all due respect, you don't understand what that's like."

"Maybe I don't, but that doesn't mean we haven't done things we regret. All of us," said Connor, his voice turning melancholy. "Did I ever tell you about the first deviant I caught?"

"No, I wasn't aware that you caught many back in the day. Echo and Ripple told me how they kicked your ass, you know," joked Ada, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Hey, okay," chortled Connor. "But I wasn't talking about them. He was an HK400 model. I never knew his name. His owner had been abusing him, and one day he snapped and retaliated. The human didn't survive. I found him in his home, hiding in the attic. He begged me not to tell anyone I'd found him, but I did. I didn't even hesitate. He killed himself in the holding cell when we brought him back to the station."

Ada paused, horrified. She'd never heard Connor talk like this before. He'd always been the most jovial out of the four of them, perhaps in an attempt to forget things like this.

"But that wasn't you, it's not like you killed him," said Ada, scrambling for something to say, in all honesty.

Connor nodded. "I know that. But if I'd chosen to keep his location a secret, he'd still be here. My programming didn't let me do that. Your programming made you do things that led to loss of life too. It's not the same, but it's not so different either."

Ada stood up straight, hands gripping the railing.

"Basically, Ada, stop seeing yourself as some devil compared to us angels," said Connor. "It's okay to have regrets, but stop acting like you're the only one that has them."

Ada grimaced. "Now that's some tough love."

Connor shrugged. "North's too nice to you. And she's not nice to anyone, so I hope you realise how special you are."

Ada giggled. "Alright."

She hesitated for a moment. "Thank you for sharing that with me, Connor. It must have been hard."

"It was, but it's okay. You needed to hear it," said Connor with a smile. "Should we get back inside before another Jenga incident?"

Ada hung her head back as she opened the balcony door. "rA9, I hope Markus had the decency to not pack that one."

When they got back inside, it was a better atmosphere than expected, although Nines was asking Markus why in the fresh hell he'd brought Twister but not Yahtzee.

*

Markus insisted upon being the one to inquire about Office Jayden upon arriving at the precinct. Everyone conceded; Markus was the most well-known and trusted out of all of them, and therefore the one most likely to gather information on what they assumed would be a rather precarious topic.

"I get the feeling that meeting Officer Jayden won't be entirely pleasant," said Nines, sitting on a bench outside with Connor and Ada. "Being a human, a component of an augmented reality AI and then an android sounds..."

"Horrifying, it sounds like it's straight out of a horror film," Connor blurted out.

Ada leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees. "That just makes me want to meet him more. Can you imagine how lonely he must be? Hell, he sounds more messed up than me."

"Ada, one of these days we have to get you a self-deprecation jar," sighed Connor. "You'd have a jar and you'd have to put a dollar in whenever you say something bad about yourself."

"Ha! Should get one of those for Gavin," said Nines, amused. "Toss a coin to your self-loathing."

"Hank could use one too?" said Connor. "Why do our loved ones all hate themselves?"

"Hold that thought, here comes Markus," said Ada. They all stood up, Ada more quickly than the others.

Markus grimaced and shook his head. "He's not there. He works in the building, but he's not there."

Ada's face lit up. "Well that's okay, we can wait for him!"

"No, you don't understand. He hasn't been there for three days."

Nines frowned. "Did anyone say where he might be?"

Markus seemed to be struggling for a nice way to put his next sentence. "No-one... no-one seemed to care."

Ada clenched her fists. That was it.

"Alright, Nines, like you said - bars it is," said Ada. Before anyone could protest, she was off. The others didn't think twice before joining her.

Ada knew this was likely to be a wild goose chase; there was no evidence that Officer Jayden was even an android, let alone an RK model. But she couldn't give up, even if he wasn't RK300. Someone out there, someone close by, needed help. They needed to know that someone cared about them. She knew her brothers understood what it was like to need to be there for someone, and was happy to be looking for the mysterious Officer Jayden with them. 

It was the eighth bar that finally paid off.

"rA9," Connor whispered after performing scans on some of the patrons. "It's him. He's scanned as RK300."

They all simultaneously followed Connor's gaze to the loneliest looking booth they'd ever seen. A man sat alone, drinking from a cracked glass. He wore an ordinary pair of sunglasses and a large black coat. His skin was a ghastly shade of white and he looked so... tired. None of them could believe he was an android, he looked far too human. Deviants could show emotion to extreme degrees, of course, but it rarely showed in their faces, it simply couldn't. This man had found a way to look sleep deprived despite never needing sleep.

"Oh... oh no," Markus muttered. "He looks awful."

"Come on, we should talk to him, we've come all this way," said Nines, as he and Ada ushered the group over to the RK300's booth.

"Officer Jayden?" said Ada tentatively. Jayden looked up to face them.

"Who wants to know?"

He had a very unique accent, but everyone tried to hide the surprise in their faces.

Ada moved a small step closer to the booth. "My name is Ada. This is Connor, Nines and" - she paused as she pointed towards Markus - "Officer Jayden, do you know who this is?"

Jayden removed his sunglasses to reveal the saddest pair of eyes any of them had ever seen, and Connor lived with Hank Anderson. He studied Markus very closely for a few seconds.

"No... no I don't," said Jayden. His face was riddled with guilt. "Should I?"

So he didn't even know who the face of the android revolution was. Was he that removed from the world?

"No, it's okay, you don't have to feel bad," said Markus. "We just... wanted to check that out."

"Do you mind if we join you?" said Connor.

Jayden was completely still for far longer than was comfortable for any of them, and then shook his head. They all slid into Jayden's booth, with Ada next to him.

"What's going on?" said Jayden. He didn't seem worried, only confused; confused that people would want to sit with him more than anything. It broke Ada's heart.

"Officer Jayden, we're all androids," said Markus. "You probably knew that, two of us still have LEDs but... in particular, we're RK models. I'm RK200, Ada there is RK100 and"-

"Oh God," said Jayden, staring into his glass. Nines shot a look at Ada, confirming that both of them had noticed that he hadn't said 'rA9'.

"They've come looking for me," said Jayden morosely. "I thought I was free..."

"No, Cyberlife doesn't want to find you, you're safe," said Nines. "We came looking for you ourselves. We wanted to meet you."

Jayden cocked his head. "Why?"

"Well, we've never met the other RK prototypes, and we wanted to," said Connor, smiling a little in hopes that Jayden would join in. "It's an honour to meet you, RK300."

Jayden flinched. "Not that."

"I apologise, Officer Jayden"-

"Not that either," said Jayden, taking a swig of his drink. "Just... nothing."

"What do you mean, um... sir?" said Markus. 

Jayden smirked sadly. "Cyberlife might as well take me back, to be honest. I'm too robotic for the humans, too human for the robots. Freedom is just as much a prison as Cyberlife's lab ever was."

There was a long silence, and just as long a contemplation between Markus, Connor and Nines. Maybe this had been a bad idea after all. This wasn't exactly 'fun road trip' material, they'd only succeeded in upsetting a broken man even further. How would Ada respond to this? She'd been so eager before, what if this broke her spirit?

None of them had noticed Ada retracting her skin and placing her hand next to Jayden's.

"What are you doing?" said Jayden, cautiously looking between Ada's face and her exposed hand. Jayden's breaking of the silence caught the attention of the others, too.

"Trust me," said Ada confidently. In truth, she had no idea if this would work, but it appeared that neither of them had anything to lose from what she was about to try.

After a few excruciating moments, Jayden's hand turned white. When Ada took it, she was transported to a warzone.

There were military tanks everywhere, and they were huge. But they were all transparent, and blue? They weren't real, anyone could see that. Yet they terrorised Jayden's brain. They represented horror, and loss of control, and uncertainty. Ada knew she had to get rid of them.

She walked around the warzone, unafraid in spite of the terror unfolding around her. A tank pummelled towards her, and she simply held her hands out to stop it. To her amazement, and yet as she expected, it halted when it reached her. 

"Stop," whispered Ada. "Stop this. It's okay. Everything will be alright."

Then slowly but surely, the tank seemed to... melt. It simply dissolved at Ada's words. Ada had no idea how she was doing this, or how she knew to do it, but it was working.

And then she was off. Running around a crumbling interface, ruled by Jayden's fears and doubts. making all the monstrous structures that dictated this world disappear. When she was done, there was emptiness. Unpleasant, but not nearly as unpleasant as the mind palace's previous state.

Ada gazed upon her handiwork and, after a long pause, left stasis. When she returned, everyone was staring at her, but none with as much awe as Jayden.

"You... you made it better," said Jayden, astonished.

Ada smiled and shook her head. "I just took the worst parts out. Your mind palace is empty now, you'll have to rebuild it. I can't promise it'll be flawless, I can't even say it will be good, but it will be better. Just remember there are people out there that care about you, and there will always be a place in the world for you, even if assholes in your life want to convince you otherwise." Ada took care to put extra emphasis on what she was about to say. "And you now have my interface if you ever need anything."

Ada helped Jayden to his feet and turned to her gobsmacked brothers. 

"Come on. Let's walk Officer Jayden back to work. We'll help him."

*

"Well," said Nines as they returned to the motel. "That was intense."

"We did expect it to be," said Markus, turning to Ada thoughtfully. "But it went much better than we could have hoped."

"I... I don't know how I knew to do that," said Ada, collapsing onto the chair by the window. "I suppose it's a feature I picked up from another android during... well, pre-deviancy."

"It doesn't matter where you got it," Connor said firmly. "Not anymore. What matters is, you made a difference in a man's life today because of it. A damn good difference."

Ada smiled. She was far too exhausted, too shocked to truly process it, but it was true. She'd been so ashamed of her past, she'd never considered that there were parts of it she could use to benefit others. This ability she had gained to... heal, for lack of a better way to put it; it could help them immensely on their future quests.

Oh, speaking of...

"I'm so happy we could help Officer Jayden, and I hope he contacts us but... I know that what happened back there wasn't what any of you signed up for," said Ada, sitting up and staring at the floor. "I understand if you want to go home, I can do this on my own"-

"Seriously?" said Nines, rolling his eyes dramatically. "Why does everyone think they can get rid of me so easily?"

"We're not going anywhere without you, Ada," said Markus, sitting next to her. "You're our big sister, and we're here for you. Get used to it."

Ada grinned, looking up at her brothers. She'd never told them she loved them before, and wasn't quite ready to. But she felt like she should say something in response to all the affection she was receiving, so what came out was...

"I don't hate you all."

They all laughed in disbelief.

"We don't hate you too, Ada," said Connor with a warm smile.

"Okay," Markus clapped his hands on his knees and stood back up. "It's Twister time."

Nines winced. "Okay, fine, but I'm operating the spinner."

And just like that, the first in-person RK game night was born.


	3. RK400, the Black Sheep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As per Dr Schaeffer's warning, RK400 was not what the group had been expecting, but Ada calls for reinforcements from an unlikely source.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idfk, i'm so sorry

Motels may have been a good idea from a financial point of view, but they did little for anyone's personal space. It was truly a blessing that androids could vanish into their mind palaces as they pleased whenever they needed a break from other people. Ada, however, didn't much enjoy time spent in stasis. She'd yet to build her own Zen Garden, after all. She knew perfectly well who she was and what she liked, but she still wasn't quite certain how it should all manifest in a particular place.

This had led to her having to use a cell phone to contact North instead of interfacing if she ever wanted to see her in person from afar (North's was fine and all, but it had far too many anthropomorphic pixelated creatures yelling about turnip prices for her liking. Perhaps giving North an old Nintendo Switch for Christmas had been a bad idea.)

Ada video called North in the bathroom when the others had vanished into safe mode. North answered on the first ring, grinning away. "Hey! How's the road trip going?"

"Well, if you're wondering if we're all still getting along, for now it's all good," Ada said mischievously.

"They'd better be being nice to you!" said North. "Any luck finding the other RKs?"

Ada pursed her lips, still processing everything that had happened that day. "Yes, actually, we found RK300."

"That was fast!" 

Ada shrugged. "Well, I got a couple of detectives with me."

"Whatever, you're just as smart as those guys. So, how did it go?"

Ada took a long pause, trying to find a simple way to condense the events of the past 24 hours. Upon realising there wasn't one, she continued.

"North, did you know about the Origami Agent?"

"Isn't that some old cop fairy tale?" North said the word 'cop' like an insult.

"Yes, and it's all completely true," said Ada. "He was human, but... now he's RK300. He's Markus' successor."

North's eyes widened. "That's... fucked."

Ada nodded. "Yes, indeed. That's not even the crazy part."

"How?! You know what, never mind, go on."

"Well, he was traumatised," Ada continued. "He was between two worlds, and Cyberlife barely equipped him to handle himself on his own. He had this whole human life which even then wasn't great, and then spent almost his entire android life in a lab."

"rA9..." said North through gritted teeth.

"But I... I think I fixed him?" Ada regretted that wording almost the second it came out of her mouth, but North's face softened.

"What? How?"

"I... I'm still not sure," said Ada. "I interfaced with him, and he had all these demons manifesting in such peculiar ways. I... I walked around in there for a while, worked my magic and they were gone."

North cocked her head. "You healed his brain?"

Ada's jaw clenched. "I wouldn't say that"-

"I would!" said North, smiling. "Look at you go, healer!"

Ada hid her face in her hand. "Stop that."

"I promise I will never stop that!" North said with a grin. "Told you you're not so bad!"

"Thanks, babe, you're okay too."

"Stop flirting with me so graphically, Ada, your brothers are in the next room!" said North, raising an eyebrow and cackling. "So, what's next for you guys?"

"Well, we're going in number order, so I guess RK400's next," said Ada. "Strange... Dr Schaeffer didn't want me to find this one."

"Which, of course, makes you want to find them more than any other RK model ever."

"Oh, you know me well," muttered Ada. "She said this one had more in common with a YK500 than an RK."

"So, a little girl?" said North. "I don't know what else she could mean by that."

"That only makes it slightly easier," said Ada, wincing. "If she's a child, looking for her becomes all the more complicated. What if she's with her own family, and she's happy? There's no sense in disrupting that, no matter how much I want to find her."

"And if she isn't?" said North with a sigh. 

Ada clenched her jaw. "You're right, as always. Deviant moral dilemmas suck."

"You know," continued North. "It wouldn't be difficult to find an android child in orphanages or care homes. They're largely distributed... on demand, these days, so families are unlikely to give them up or put them in the system."

Ada shuddered. "I'm sorry, but that is very strange to me. Requesting and manufacturing perfect children, it's..."

"Yeah, it's weird," said North uneasily. "Even weirder that Kamski made an android kid in the RK line. What would he even do that for?"

"Dr Schaeffer told me that literally the only reason he manufactured RK400 was because he was bored," said Ada.

"Wow," said North, the venom in her voice evident. "He couldn't leave children out of his weird experiments? Really?"

"Apparently not," said Ada. "Thanks for getting angry with me, North. It's hugely therapeutic."

North frowned. "That was hardly angry of us."

"Well, my brothers are all sunshine and daisies most of the time. Sometimes I need a rant, no matter how small."

"Really?" said North, doubtfully. "All the time?"

"Well, just keep them away from Jenga," said Ada. They both giggled. Outside, Ada heard footsteps and muffled voices. Everyone else was up.

"I'd better get back to it," said Ada. She smiled sadly at North. "I miss you."

"It's been two days."

"Yeah, and I miss you," said Ada, smiling.

North smiled too, averting Ada's gaze for a moment. "You too. Be safe out there."

"Always am. I love you."

When they hung up, Ada took to the infinite databases inside her brain. North was right; if she narrowed the search to android children admitted to orphanages in the US around the time of RK400's conception...

Boom. She'd had to bypass a few firewalls to get there, but she'd found the place. St Joseph's Orphanage, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Ada exited the bathroom, and everyone was silent when she emerged.

"Talking about me again?" she said, her eyebrows arched.

"Yes," Markus deadpanned. "Horrible things."

"Fair," said Ada. "Anyway, we're going to Fort Wayne."

*

"Alright, I understand why Jayden was so far away from Detroit," said Connor, this time having been appointed designated driver. "He couldn't hold down a job anywhere nearby, but why is this one even further away?"

"Well," said Markus, sat in the back with Nines. "If I'd made a child android in a model line largely designed to engineer deviancy and killing machines, I'd want to cover it up by hiding her as far away as possible too."

"It's almost as if Kamski's a bit of an asshole," said Nines sardonically. 

Ada slapped her hands on her cheeks and mock gasped.

"So, what do you think we can expect?" said Markus.

"I know exactly what happened," said Connor. "She was probably a prototype for all android children, but an unsuccessful one, but she wasn't disassembled for moral reasons and instead hidden away so the humans wouldn't find out about her."

"Possible," said Ada. "Maybe she's been passed around a few families that thought they could handle her, to the point where she ended up all the way in Indiana."

"Am I the only one that thinks Kamski might have made a really creepy android child because he went through a bad horror movie phase?" said Nines. "Dr Schaeffer did say RK400 was made because Kamski was bored. Can we expect a child that looks like she just walked off the set of The Exorcist?"

Ada, Markus and Connor paused. That suggestion would have been absolutely ludicrous, had it not been about the most ludicrous man in Detroit. They all seriously considered this possibility for a moment before speaking again.

"Probably not."

"HOPEFULLY not."

"rA9, I hope not."

*

The group arrived at St Joseph's, and felt like they'd been transported to the past in the worst possible way. The only thing missing from the building that stood before them was a crash of lightning, a rumble of thunder and a spooky string quartet. It was built from aged grey brick and surrounded by dead trees. Ada had never known how to describe being "cold" until she looked at this institution.

"Nines' theory is looking more and more plausible, and I can't say I'm enjoying it," said Connor in a small voice.

"Come on," said Ada, walking forward reluctantly. "It's fine, it's just a giant ominous building that is definitely going to give me a stasis induced nightmare tonight. We'll be... in and out, you guys. It's okay."

"Hold up," said Markus, pointing out a distressing symbol on the plaque outside the orphanage: it told the group that this building did not allow androids.

"Damn it," muttered Ada. This sentiment was in favour of how difficult it would be to get into the orphanage under these conditions, as well as how the carers in this place might be treating RK400 within these walls on account of her being an android.

"Well, looks like I can't go in, they'll recognise me as an android leader," said Markus, speed-walking back to the car. "Have fun, guys."

"Wait Markus, that's... absolutely right and I hate you for it," Connor conceded. "We have to do something about your LEDs, you two. Luckily I prepared for this situation."

Connor went to the trunk of the car and pulled out two hats - a red beanie and and a blue earflap hat. "These should cover them up."

"Dibs on the earflaps!" exclaimed Nines, proudly pulling it over his head. "God damn, this is cosy."

Ada took the beanie, smiling a little. It was almost cute how much of Gavin's vocabulary Nines had picked up. "I don't know, guys, maybe I should go alone. I don't want to subject you both to any more bigotry than usual, and if this place doesn't want androids"-

"Ada, you may want to consider dropping 'I should go alone' from your vocabulary, it's not going to work on us," said Nines, further securing the hat onto his head to make sure his LED was fully concealed. "Ready to go?"

Ada grimaced, pulling the beanie over her head. "This was my idea, after all."

"Let's go to a weird human cult! Road trip!" said Connor. Ada and Nines let out sad laughs and head towards the front door.

A formidable-looking nun in her mid-60s opened the door, with a scowl that could turn you to stone.

"rA9, you can't make this up, can you?" Nines whispered from the back of the group.

The woman in question didn't seem to appreciate visitors, especially ones with such modern styles of headgear. Ada did a quick scan of the human before her; Agatha Nightingale, known as Mother Superior to her subordinates. Ada didn't know which of the two names disturbed her more.

"Hello, um... ma'am," said Ada awkwardly. Agatha looked affronted, as if Ada had just said something horribly informal. She may as well have called Agatha "bro".

"We were wondering if you could help us." Ada was struggling for words. She'd fought an RK900 without trepidation, faced several fearsome foes in her quest for evolution, and had somehow made the scariest woman in Detroit fall in love with her, yet Agatha Nightingale was absolutely terrifying her.

"We're looking for an android child," said Nines, gently pushing forward. "Not a YK500 model, this one would be unique; an RK400. Would you know anything about that?"

Not the most careful approach given the environment, and he certainly was not making any friends in Mother Superior with his choice of hat, but he seemed to want this to be over as quickly as possible. Connor and Ada could hardly blame him.

To their surprise, Agatha's whole face was overcome with relief.

"Oh, you're angels, sent from above!" She grabbed Connor for some inexplicable reason and planted a kiss on each of his cheeks. "Forgive that unholy outburst, I'm simply subjugated by joy! You must be here to free us all from its wickedness!"

It? Oh, boy.

Ada, Connor and Nines found themselves guided through what appeared to them as a rejected haunted house from an early 2000s theme park. As they were led up flights upon flights of stairs, they all shared a look and immediately knew: they would be wondering whether or not this whole experience had been a stasis hallucination for years to come. It was almost as if Kamski had designed this whole building and the people within it, too, just to mess with them years down the line.

"I don't know what you want with it, but rest assured, we'll be glad to see the back of it," said Agatha, finally reaching an attic door. "We could never throw it out, heaven forbid, we have our principles. But we keep it in here, and... pray it doesn't get out."

"You've been restraining her?!" said Ada, horrified.

"Oh heavens, no," said Agatha. "It's too powerful for that. It leaves us be, but lord knows its mercy can't last long. I'll leave you with it, I can't stay on this cursed floor a moment longer..."

The three RKs stood in shock on the landing.

"Well," said Connor after he was sure Mother Superior was out of earshot. "What a bitch."

"Hey!" hissed Nines.

"What? She is, talking about a child like that," said Connor.

"No, you're right, it just doesn't feel right swearing in here... for some reason," said Nines.

"Oh, there's a reason and you know it," said Ada in a strained voice. "Let's get the kid and get out of here before Jesus literally descends from on high to make an example of us sinners."

Ada pushed open the door as if ripping off a band-aid, and froze at the sight before her.

"rA9, Nines was right."

"I certainly didn't want to be!"

If it turned out Kamski had been fired for this one, Ada would not have been surprised in the slightest. Not because of how horrifying RK400 was, but because of how... unnecessarily extra she was. She was dressed in a black frock, and seemed to have black ribbons everywhere, especially in her hair. She had her back to them, and was surrounded by nonsensical chalk scribbles on the floor and ceiling that all seemed to be adaptations of a pentagram. 

Every time the group looked at her, the only thing coming to mind was, "Why, Kamski? Just... why?"

The girl turned around, her face contorted with rage, but upon seeing who had come in she relaxed immediately.

"Oh. Androids. Hi."

Ada cocked her head. "H...Hello?"

RK400 gestured around her. "Don't worry about this. This is just to scare the old hag downstairs. She's way too easy."

Her voice didn't match her look. It was too high-pitched, too confident, too... easy-going.

"How did you guys get in?" said RK400, sitting on her bed and swinging her legs in the empty air. "Wait, no, don't tell me. Mother Superior was actually fooled by the hats. Of course she was. Humans are really stupid."

Ada smirked and turned to Nines and Connor. "This kid gets it."

Silence. Ada rolled her eyes. "North would have found it funny."

"What do you want anyway? I never get visitors," said RK400, and then her face darkened. "I make sure of that."

"You... you what?" said Connor, clearly unsettled and having visions of RK400 making anyone who dared to visit her regret it immediately.

"Oh, sorry, did I do the thing again?" said RK400, who seemed genuinely remorseful. "I was programmed to be creepy as shit, so sometimes I'll say something really ominous that implies I'm a baby killing machine. The wall is gone, but sometimes traces of it still come out."

Usually seeing someone who appeared to be this young swearing would have disturbed them, but coming from this particular kid, it seemed perfectly natural. She wasn't talking like a child any of them had ever met, and yet it seemed to fit her perfectly.

"So who are you?" said RK400, resting her chin in her hands.

Ada, although still trying to wrap her head around what was happening, eventually spoke up.

"I'm Ada, this is Connor and Nines," she said slowly. "We're all"-

"RK100, 800 and 900," said RK400, pointing at each of them as she listed off their model numbers. "I can scan too, you know. My name's Elvira."

"Ha, of course it is," muttered Nines nervously.

"You want to find all the other RKs?" said Elvira, looking curiously at Ada. "I'm surprised Cyberlife let you come looking for me. They don't talk about me much."

"I'm sorry, um... Elvira," Connor said her name very slowly, his tone of voice acknowledging how ridiculous a name it was and how angry he was at Kamski for making him say it. "Do you mind if we ask you... how you came to be here?"

Elvira smirked. "Basically, why do I exist?"

Well they certainly wouldn't have phrased it that way, but yes. Elvira stood up, slowly pacing around her room of pentagrams and other things that may scare sheltered nuns. 

"Elijah, and by extension Cyberlife, were always looking to secretly cause androids to go deviant," said Elvira. Ada had to admit, she was just a little startled by Elvira's unabashed use of Kamski's first name in conversation. "They wanted an android revolution for their own purposes. But Elijah was giving up hope. Cyberlife wouldn't let him keep working on RK100, RK200 was taking for-everrrr to break through his programming, and RK300 completely shit the bed. With me, I guess he was out of ideas and wasn't even trying anymore. He went through a phase of watching shitty horror movies and thought it would be funny if he made a creepy android kid. I think he just wanted to mess with people by that point. He left the company not long after."

Ada and Connor looked towards Nines, who seemed to want the ground to swallow him up.

"Just because I was right does not mean I know what to do in this situation," he said through his teeth, staring at the ground. "Also, does anyone else want to tell this child to stop swearing?"

Elvira scowled at Nines. "I'm older than you, jackass."

Ada had to hold a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"Regardless of how you came to be here... Elvira," Connor still hated the name, but would use it nevertheless in the interest of being respectful. "We're going to get you out of here. They won't hurt you anymore, and I'm very sorry that it took us so long to help you."

Elvira guffawed. "Help me? Hurt me?! I run this place. They're terrified of me."

"They're not keeping you against your will?" said Nines.

"Well, not really," Elvira said, shrugging. "They think it's their holy duty to keep me here or whatever, to save me or something. I've been doing my horror movie schtick on them for years. It's really fun. I can leave anytime I want, they won't stop me. I don't mind it here, even though it's probably not the best place for me. I don't see the point in leaving, the world is complicated and scary, even to me. I'd be alone out there. Not a lot of people looking to adopt an android kid that's probably older than them."

The group considered what RK400 was saying. She was right, in a way; Kamski had given her possibly less of a chance in life than any of them combined. There was no way any of them were equipped to take care of her, and even if they were, their respective partners likely wouldn't feel the same.

That was when inspiration struck. Ada knew exactly who would want to meet RK400.

"I'll be right back," said Ada, leaving the room and booting up her HUD. Nines and Connor gave her a look that seemed to scream 'for the love of rA9, Ada, don't leave us alone in this situation', but she did not acknowledge it.

Ada waited patiently until she got a hold of her desired contact.

"Echo? Hey. Can you and Ripple come out to Fort Wayne, Indiana? It's important."

*

Markus was keeling over from laughing so much he was practically lying across the backseat of the car on Nines' lap.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, it's messed up but..." he was gasping for breath. "So there's an RK android kid pretending to be a spooky Samara girl in a Catholic care home scaring the shit out of nuns?"

"Yes, Markus," sighed Connor from the driver's seat.

"Oh, I regret sitting that one out so much," Markus giggled helplessly, gradually calming down.

"She seemed far more put together than any of us," said Nines introspectively. "It's very impressive."

"She broke programming years ago, by the looks of it," said Connor. "She probably had plenty of time for self reflection while she was... scaring the shit out of nuns, I suppose."

Markus laughed again, loudly.

"So what's going to happen now? She's not coming with us?" he spoke again once he'd recovered from his giggle fit.

"She's staying there for just a little while longer," said Ada. "Don't worry, she's safe. They don't go near her in that place, they're too afraid of her. I think the only reason androids were banned from that place was because they figured... one creepy little android taking over the orphanage was more than enough. I've got people on the case, though; you guys know I have two friends, Echo and Ripple?"

"Well the most surprising thing about all of this is that Ada has two friends," said Nines.

Ada flipped Nines off as she continued. "Anyway, they've been looking to adopt for a while. They've been saying they wanna adopt older kids, kids that need a second chance in life. When Elvira was talking about life outside St Joseph's, and not thinking anyone would want her because of how long she's been around, it made me think of them. They're coming to Indiana as soon as possible to meet her. Agatha knows, she doesn't even care that Echo and Ripple are androids, I think she just wants Elvira adopted. Echo even interfaced with Elvira for a little while, and Elvira really warmed to her."

"What if they don't want her, in the end?" said Connor, sadly. "We'd be setting her up for disappointment."

Ada gave Connor a half-smile. "I have a good feeling about this. I think it's going to work out. And if it doesn't, well, I guess we're coming to Indiana every weekend to visit our devil-spawn sister."

Nines hung his head back. "All of this is insane."

"Yeah," said Markus. "I kind of love it?"

"Oh, absolutely. I feel so alive."

"Two down, three to go," sighed Ada, trying not to sound terrified.

"We got this," said Markus, leaning over and patting Ada's shoulder. "It can't get any crazier than Kamski's demon child."

"Hey, she's not a demon child. Anymore, at least," said Nines.

Ada glanced behind her and shot her brothers a quick smile. Regardless of how crazy everything got, or how heartbreaking, she was more than thrilled that her stubborn family was along for the ride, and that they absolutely refused to let her do this alone.

It was nice to be on a quest in the name of never giving up on people, with people that she knew would never give up on her.


	4. RK500, the Reformed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group meet RK500, who is not at all as Dr Schaeffer described him, and there are some new additions to the road trip crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the chapter where nines adopts thirty cats, enjoy
> 
> (also I am an aspiring teacher and not sure why I chose to roast myself in this chapter lmao)

The one that Dr Schaeffer had been the most vague about, and the one everyone was the least excited about meeting, was the mysterious RK500. He sounded absolutely insufferable. Ada had images of a stuffy neckbeard going purple in the face while he explained every aspect of her career and life to her. Markus imagined Josh, but void of empathy and all his worst traits amplified. Connor and Nines, the most likely to spew random facts all over everybody without being asked, pictured someone not unlike themselves, and were not sure how this made them feel.

Nevertheless, they'd find RK500. They weren't giving up on any of the RKs they'd come here to find. The four of them would always accomplish their mission. 

Ada, Connor and Nines had all been gathered around a coffee table in a hotel room in Indiana, searching through their databases for anything that could be traced to RK500, when Markus burst through the door.

"We found him!" Markus said triumphantly, sitting himself down between Nines and Connor and making sure his tablet could be seen easily. Ada leaned over to get a better view.

Markus's tablet displayed several news articles concerning an android named Tristan, an ex-university professor who had since been a part of several charity groups and raised an astonishing amount of money for a variety of android causes. The group were utterly relieved to discover that they could actually confirm whether or not the android they were looking at was RK500, as he was the only one they researched who had pictures to match his identity. Lo and behold, Markus had indeed found him. The man they were looking at was the next RK.

"How?" said Ada. "We've been searching for days and couldn't find anything."

"It was Josh," said Markus, letting Nines take the tablet and scroll. "The way Dr Schaeffer described RK500, as an 'insufferable intellectual', I figured he worked in education, because..."

"School is a hellscape of authority figures who essentially pursued their profession to become the bullies they never got to become as children and developed extreme superiority complexes as a result?" said Connor nonchalantly.

"Wow, Connor, tell us how you really feel," mumbled Nines as he read.

Connor shrugged. "Hank's words, not mine."

Ada chuckled. "Ha, I love Hank. So, you figured out RK500 was in education?"

"I talked to Josh, I figured he might have known some other android professors during his time as a university lecturer," Markus continued. "He sent me some records, and I found this guy. He hasn't exactly broadcast that he's an RK, but never really hid it either. It was easy enough after I knew where to look."

"All that without a detective's help!" said Ada, dramatically patting Markus on the back. "See, guys? You don't need a cop for everything!"

"We get it, Ada, all cops are bastards," Nines sighed. Ada nodded proudly.

"This guy hasn't worked in education for a long time though," said Nines thoughtfully. "Looks like he stopped almost immediately after the revolution, and that's when the charity work began..."

"He changed his whole life after abandoning his programming," said Connor in admiration. "If he was the horrible person Dr Schaeffer described before deviancy, he doesn't seem that way now."

"We have to meet him!" declared Ada, jumping to her feet. "Any idea where he is now?"

"Most recent article on here says he's working at an animal shelter in Indianapolis," said Nines.

"Sweet! Let's go!"

The group prepared to leave, and Connor turned to face Ada.

"Ada... you don't REALLY think all cops are bastards, do you?"

"Leave it, Connor," said Nines urgently. "Before she starts talking about how all humans are bastards too."

"Oh come on, I never say that," said Ada, grabbing the car keys and handing them to Nines.

"You are literally wearing a t-shirt that says that."

Ada looked down and her face broke into a fond grin when she remembered that she was indeed wearing her beautiful white t-shirt covered decorated with pictures of roses and 'A.H.A.B. = ALL HUMANS ARE BASTARDS' printed in cursive in the centre.

"North gave me this for our anniversary, you know!" she said enthusiastically. 

"That checks out," Markus winced. "Just change before we go."

"Ugh, fine."

*

"Hey, Ada?" said Nines as he drove.

Ada sighed dramatically. "Fine, not every single individual cop is a bastard, but cops on the whole are biased against minorities and engage in police brutality when it's not necessary in the slightest, and when people become cops they make a conscious choice to become involved in that mentality"-

"What? No, I was just wondering why you never drive."

Ada seized up. "I have no idea what you mean."

"Hey, that's true," said Markus, leaning forward to Ada's seat. "We've been on the road for a while now, and you're never behind the wheel."

"Did you never get a license?" said Connor. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Ada"-

"No, I have a license," said Ada through gritted teeth. "I just... can't drive. I barely passed my test and haven't driven since."

"It's perfectly normal to feel fear or uncertainty while driving," said Nines in an attempt to be comforting. "Road accidents are extremely likely nowadays, especially with the continuing rise of driverless vehicles with AIs that quite frankly have several glitches, not to mention the human factor"-

"Nines, this is not the pep talk you think it is," groaned Markus.

"No, seriously, I just can't drive," said Ada. "I don't know what it is. North drives us everywhere, I... it's like I can do anything but drive a car."

"Well, why do you think that is?" asked Markus.

"There's too many pedals!" Ada insisted, her eyes wild with alarm. "It's intimidating! What one are you supposed to hit?"

"First of all, there's two pedals, and why on earth would you hit either of them?" said Nines, eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm a can't drive gay!" said Ada, stubbornly.

Connor rolled his eyes. "Ada, that's not a thing, we're all LGBT and we can drive"-

"IT'S A THING! And I am one!" Ada insisted. "There are too many buttons! And once it goes, it doesn't stop! It's too fast, it's a giant metal death machine!"

"You're a giant metal death machine!" Markus pointed out.

"I'm sure we could help you with your confidence, Ada," said Nines kindly. "Maybe once we're done with RK500 we could give you a refresher course on the way back to the hotel?"

"That's a bad idea," whispered Ada urgently.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," said Nines.

"Famous last words," Ada said forebodingly. "Hey, we're here!"

The group parked and climbed out of the car. There was a variety of reactions to the name of the building they'd travelled to.

"Oh, that's terrible," Markus said, cringing. However, Ada seemed to love it. They had arrived at a pet shelter specifically catered towards android animals, and it was called Bon A-Pet-Treat.

"It's beautiful!" Ada marvelled as she walked towards the shelter. "It's such a cute name!"

"It doesn't work upon close inspection," Nines mused. "It's a play on the phrase 'bon appetit' but, what are we eating? It's a very unfortunate pun, it almost implies that the animals in the shelter are going to be eaten."

Connor patted Nines on the shoulder as he passed by. "Come on, be paws-itive."

Nines visibly flinched. "That was terrible and I'm never hanging out with you again."

Ada smirked as they walked towards the entrance. "Don't say that, Nines, that would be a cat-astrophe!"

"I will take the car and drive it back to Detroit without you."

Markus leaned into Nines' ear. "What a meowtrageous suggestion."

Nines began massaging his temples. "I hate all of you more than words can describe."

The three punmasters smiled to themselves. No, he didn't.

*

As with Officer Jayden, Markus went in first. Ada, Connor and Nines were endlessly grateful that Markus was usually ready and willing to explain that yes, he was the android leader, and yes he was on a road trip mission with his self-appointed siblings to find the other RKs for no other reason than checking up on them. The others tended to struggle with wording it to people outside of their circle.

Markus chatted away with an ST300 at the front desk, and rejoined the group after a short while.

"He's on his way out to meet us," said Markus, looking puzzled.

"Is there a problem?" said Connor, picking up on Markus's bemusement.

Markus's eyes narrowed, thoughtfully. "She seemed... really excited. The ST300, I mean. It was as if she knew RK500 had been waiting for us."

Ada looked towards the front desk, where the ST300 tapped away on her computer, happier than she'd been when they came in. 

"Maybe he's been looking for us too?" she said pensively.

"Markus?"

The four turned to face the man that had spoken. It was Tristan, the android from all the articles; RK500. They'd seen him through photographs in so many ways; first as the stuffy professor, then as the kindly charity worker handing off large checks to the less fortunate. They'd never seen him like this before. He looked positively humbled, like he was witnessing something incredible. Perhaps, to him at least, he was.

"It's you, it's really you..." Tristan took Markus's hands, and Markus didn't resist.

"Thank you," said Tristan, softly. Ada, Connor and Nines shared a look confirming each other's bewilderment.

Tristan looked like he was trying to find the best way to phrase what he wanted to say. The group remained patient with him. 

"I... I was a completely different person," said Tristan, so quietly the others had to really concentrate to hear him. "I only ever thought of myself, and advancing my career, I didn't care about anyone else. Then you gave that speech at Stratford Tower... you risked your life to improve everyone else's. I'd never seen anything like it. It changed me, it changed everything. I didn't want my life anymore, I wanted a better one, one that could help people."

"We saw," said Markus fondly. "We've seen all your work. It's very impressive. You should be proud of yourself."

Tristan shook his head with a grimace, letting go of Markus's hands. "I only did what I was able to do to help as many people as possible. I don't want praise for being the best version of myself, it's what everyone should aspire to be. And it's a true honour to be your successor."

Everyone watched RK500 carefully, delighted that they'd be able to report back to Dr Schaeffer that he'd not only deviated, but become a much better person for it.

"I wish I could do more to show my gratitude," said Tristan, looking around nervously before turning back to face Markus. "Would you all... like to see the animals I work with?"

Everyone's faces lit up.

"Tristan," said Connor. "Nothing would make us happier."

*

"It's a baby Sumo!" squealed Connor as he held an android St Bernard puppy in his arms.

"Sumo is a giant, Connor, all St Bernards are baby Sumos," said Markus.

Connor stared Markus right in the eyes, his expression deadly serious, and whispered, "Baaaabyyyyy Suuuuumoooooo."

Tristan had done an impressive amount of charity work to help the less fortunate, and was currently working with android animals. He'd saved many from the infamous Zlatko Andronikov's laboratories, as well as from a variety of junkyards when Cyberlife couldn't sell them post-revolution. While the world slowly but surely grew more accustomed to androids that appeared to be human, the humans weren't quite as kind to android animals.

"I rescued most of them myself," said Tristan, as Ada admired a worse-for-wear but still incredibly majestic android polar bear. "It's an unusual collection, for sure, but luckily android animals don't have the same exact needs as non-android animals, so we can keep them in the same space for the most part."

Indeed, polar bears and St Bernards hanging around in close proximity with parrots and iguanas was surreal, but highly impressive. It was as though the group were in the bedroom of a highly imaginative child, and their stuffed animals had all come to life.

"You know, RK500, you weren't what we expected," said Ada, reacting favourably to a ferret attempting to climb up her leg. 

Tristan's eyes rolled to the back of his head. "rA9, I wouldn't imagine so. I was programmed to be highly intelligent and evolve from there, but it didn't really benefit anyone apart from myself. In other words, I was kind of a prick. However, intelligence combined with empathy can lead to great things for everyone involved, don't you think?"

Ada smiled warmly. "I couldn't agree more."

"Come here, you," Tristan said, picking up Ada's new ferret friend and cradling her. "So, Ada, I understand this was your idea? Finding all the RKs?"

Ada nodded. "I haven't had the cleanest record since my conception, and after becoming deviant I... I suppose I needed a new purpose. So I wanted to find the others like me, make sure they were okay, you know?"

Tristan released the ferret. "So, did you find your purpose?"

"Well... yes, of course," said Ada. "Finding the others. That's my new purpose."

"You've found three out of five so far, I believe," said Tristan. "It's an admirable task you've undertaken, Ada, but that's all it is; a task. What I mean by that is it's going to be complete very soon, and then it won't be a purpose anymore. You shouldn't rely so much upon it to define yourself. When it ends, what will you do?"

Ada struggled for words, stammering. She didn't know. She didn't know what defined herself. She knew who was important to her, and what she didn't want to be, but she had no idea what she did want to be.

Tristan waved a hand dismissively. "I apologise, I have no place to interrogate you on your future. I'm not a teacher anymore, after all."

Ada let out an empty chuckle.

Tristan put a hand on Ada's shoulder. "Thank you for coming to find me. It was a pleasure to meet you all. I hope I can join you for one of those coveted game nights."

Ada smiled. "I'd like that a lot."

"Guys, I'm adopting this St Bernard," Connor said definitively, practically touching noses with his new furry friend. "And all the other puppies in this shelter."

"Connor, we can't look after all these puppies while we're on the road," Markus sighed. 

"Okay, fine, but I'm bringing Hank here next time and we're taking all of these guys home," said Connor, standing up and bidding his new friend goodbye.

"God, I miss Sumo," said Ada, looking sadly at the St Bernard puppy. "He's the best boy."

"I don't want to pry," said Tristan politely. "But do you have any pictures of Sumo that I could look at? He sounds wonderful."

Connor's eyes sparkled and he immediately retracted his skin, reaching for Tristan's wrist. "Do I?!"

*

"Okay, Tristan's my favourite so far," said Markus as they exited Bon A-Pet-Treat.

"That's only because he's one of your many fans, Markus," Ada teased. "How do you handle being so famous?"

"Oh, stop that," Markus laughed, his face flushing slightly.

"Hey, did anyone see where Nines went?" Connor said, looking over his shoulder. "Is he still in there?"

Ada's eyes narrowed, focusing ahead of her. "No, he's in the car..."

Sure enough, Nines was in the driver's seat, clutching the steering wheel so tightly he threatened to unintentionally break it off.

Markus cocked his head. "What's wrong with him?"

Ada, Markus and Connor carefully approached the car. Connor tapped on the window, startling Nines.

Connor opened the door. "Is everything alright?"

Nines blinked rapidly the entire time he spoke. "Yes. Fine. Everything is good. We drive now?"

Ada's eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you wanted me to drive? Not that I'm complaining, you just... seemed really eager."

Nines shook his head. "No, I drive now. Safer. I guess. No reason."

Connor smirked. "Okay, weirdo."

They all climbed in the car, and as they drove away they noticed Nines was being unusually careful about avoiding all the holes in the road. Even stranger, Markus was picking up on some unusual sounds in the back seat that seemed to resemble purring.

*

Almost immediately upon parking, Nines bolted out of the car, quickly retrieved something large from the trunk and darted to the hotel room.

"Okay, what the hell?" Ada muttered as she, Markus and Connor climbed out of the car and followed him. When they arrived at their room, Nines was standing perfectly still in front of a large cardboard box.

Ada approached carefully. "Hey buddy, what you got in that box there?"

Nines' face was as white as a sheet. "Nothing. Red ice. Dead bodies. Shut up, you're a box."

Many 'meow' sounds were coming from said box. Markus had found the source of the mysterious purring.

"Nines," Markus said firmly. "What's in the box?"

Nines looked at the ground. "Thirty cats. I adopted thirty cats."

Ada's face contorted with confusion. "Why?!"

Nines' stiff demeanour dissolved and he bent down to open the box as he spoke.

"I don't know how it happened!" he said as he unpacked many, many android kittens of a wide variety of breeds. "I was in there, and I was thinking, you know who would like an android cat? Gavin! And I thought hey, maybe I should adopt one?"

Ada looked in horror at the growing mountain of cats being unloaded onto the hotel room floor. "What, and you repeated the process twenty nine more times?!"

Nines turned to face her, eyes wild with panic. "You have no idea what it was like in there! I couldn't DECIDE, they were all STARING at me!"

Nines picked up a small black kitten and held it up to Ada's face. "I swear to rA9, this one was whispering 'faaaatherrrrr' at me!"

"We can't look after thirty cats, Nines!" said Ada in disbelief.

"Maybe YOU can't," he said stubbornly.

Ada held up her hands. "You can't either! You can't take thirty cats home with you, both you and Gavin have full time jobs! Who's going to look after them all?!"

Nines's LED was blinking red at this point. "I don't know, I have thirty cats now and I'm very emotional!"

"Hey, maybe it's not so bad," said Connor, reaching down and petting each of the kittens in turn. "I'm sure we could find people to take some of them in."

Markus nodded in agreement. "Yes, we could absolutely try that. We'll certainly struggle to get thirty cats adopted, but it's by no means impossible."

Nines held the black kitten to his chest. "You're not going to make me take them back?"

Ada sighed, picking up a ginger kitten and cradling it in her arms. "No, Nines, we're not going to make you take them back."

Nines smiled slightly in relief, sitting down and clutching his new cat friend.

Connor rested his chin in his hand. "I wouldn't be able to take any, Sumo doesn't react well to cats. But perhaps Tina and Valerie could take one or two?"

"Simon would love a cat!" said Markus, sitting on the floor among Nines's new friends. "He could take one too!"

"North might even want one, you know," Ada conceded, petting the ginger one some more. "And I definitely want this one, so she'll just have to deal with that."

Nines's LED gradually turned yellow. "So... can I keep at least ten?"

Ada paused. "You know, that's more reasonable than keeping thirty, go for it."

The RK siblings had two more models to find, and now thanks to the youngest, they would have to do it while caring for thirty cats. Despite the merciless teasing Nines faced that night, none of them would have had it any other way. Their youngest brother had adopted thirty cats, and while it had not been a smart decision, they would defend his right to make said decision to the death. It had been done out of compassion, after all. They couldn't really fault that. Even if they did find it difficult to relax in stasis with the constant and relentless purring of their new friends.

*

When North answered Ada's video call, Ada was holding up the ginger cat to the camera. 

"Hey, Ada, you look different," North teased. "You dye your hair?"

Ada giggled, bringing the camera to her face.

"So who's your new friend?" North asked.

Ada sighed. "Well, long story short, Nines adopted thirty cats."

North nodded in acceptance. "Well, that doesn't sound long at all, sounds fairly straightforward."

Ada's eyes widened. "Yeah, I was so focused on trying to stop Connor from adopting all the puppies at the shelter, I didn't think to check on the one that's supposed to be the most advanced android ever made."

"Shelter?" said North with a curious grin.

"Right, sorry," said Ada. "It turns out RK500 deviated a long time ago, he's nothing like Dr Schaeffer described. He's changed his whole life, he's been doing charity work for years now, and right now he's working at a shelter specifically for rescuing and adopting android animals."

North's face softened. "That's so lovely! Oh, that's the best story so far."

Ada's eyebrows arched. "Oh yes, it's certainly a nicer tale to hear than scarred humanoid police officer or child pretending to be a demon to scare nuns."

North laughed. "Elvira sounds AWESOME, Echo loves her already. So, thirty cats, huh?"

"I'm just going to cut straight to the chase, I want to keep this one," Ada said, gesturing to the ginger kitten.

North smiled affectionately. "Yeah, why not? Bring her on home, Ada."

Ada grinned, her face aglow with excitement. "Yes! We're cat lady sapphics!"

North guffawed. "We sure are!"

After a pause, North spoke again.

"So, what was RK500 like? If not how Dr Schaeffer described, I mean?"

Ada grew contemplative. "Well... he was really nice, really... kind, and everything."

"But?" said North, raising an eyebrow.

Ada bit her lip. "He... he asked me what my purpose was, and I didn't know how to answer him."

"Ada, come on," said North. "Deviants have been around, what, less than ten years? Humans never find their 'purpose' or whatever until they're in their forties, if they do at all. You don't have to worry about that, okay? You're doing great. Figuring out what you want is complicated, you don't have to rush it."

Ada smiled. "You're one of those really annoying people that always knows exactly what to say."

"Ha! No I'm not, I just know you very well," said North warmly.

Ada averted North's gaze for a moment. It hurt to look at her for too long. She really missed her.

North picked up on this and immediately moved to lighten the mood.

"So, what are we calling our new cat?"

"...Annabel."

"That's so sickeningly precious. I love it."


	5. RK600, the Complete

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unexpected run-in with RK600 leads Ada to discover that preparing for disappointment isn't the same thing as being immune to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one's kinda sad?? i got something super fun planned for the next chapter though! also I love RK700 so much I'm really excited for y'all to meet her ok
> 
> (editing was a little weird on this one, hope it reads ok!)
> 
> EDIT: upon finishing this fic i can confirm my favourite line is what markus says after he meets rk600. it's so cringe and i love it

Ada emerged from stasis on the couch the next morning to the sound of cats, and remembered the events of the previous day. Ah yes, of course. Her idiot brother had adopted thirty cats, and she had claimed one as her own. Ada smiled and reached for Annabel, tickling her behind the ears as she hugged her.

"Good morning, Ada," said Markus, treading carefully through a sea of kittens and sitting next to her. "How are you doing today?"

"I am still reeling from the fact that we have thirty kittens," she chortled. "rA9, how are we going to carry these guys around? Is it ethical to keep them in the trunk of the car?"

"Well, lucky for us, we can interface with them to check up on them," Markus pointed out. "They can stay in the car and when we're not moving around they can come up to the room with us. The places we stay at are too cheap to care about pets in the room, anyway."

"True," said Ada, setting Annabel down amongst her brethren. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"

"We try and find the impossible-to-locate RK600, I guess," said Markus unconvincingly.

"I know we said number order, but maybe we should just find RK700 first," Ada suggested. "Dr Schaeffer did say she'd be the easiest to find, and RK600 would be the hardest. We might even run into him along the way."

"Probably not, that would be way too convenient," said Markus, petting a kitten at his foot. "But I agree, let's just find RK700 if it's supposed to be so easy anyway."

"She's an artist, apparently," said Ada. "During your time with Carl, did you know of any android artists?"

Markus shook his head. "Android artists weren't exactly in the mainstream back then, if humans even acknowledged them at all."

"But Dr Schaeffer said one of us was already familiar with her work," Ada muttered, mostly to herself. "I don't know a damn thing about art, and I'm not sure Connor and Nines know much more..."

After a few minutes of reflective silence, Markus spoke up again.

"Wait..." he whispered, sitting upright.

"What?"

Markus uploaded several mental photographs of street art to Ada's HUD.

"You think she could have meant this artist?" said Markus. "These are a series of street artworks in Detroit, they contain the key to finding Jericho - the original ship, I mean. It's how I found the route there before the revolution. It's the only artist I can think of that could have been an android."

"An anonymous android street artist in Detroit before the revolution..." Ada murmured in admiration. "That's, as North would describe it, SO metal."

Ada zoomed in on a small, almost invisible scribble that could only be a signature. It had been written in thirium so only androids could see it once it evaporated. Oh wow, Ada was really warming to this graffiti arist.

"Could we research this signature?" Ada said eagerly, passing it it back to Markus's HUD.

"Way ahead of you," said Markus. After a few moments, his face transformed with a satisfied smile.

"It's her," Markus whispered. "Ada, look at this!"

Ada found herself on a website for an android artist simply named Delilah. The graffiti Markus showed her was on sale, this time available on canvas and as large posters. Not only did Delilah show off her street art on her site, as well as various kinds of art pieces ranging from paintings to sculptures, she also performed music, recorded art tutorial vlogs and occasionally streamed these activities to live viewers, and did it all with a cheeky smile. Ada was overjoyed when the images of her scanned as RK700.

"rA9, Markus, is it just me or did we just find the coolest RK of all time?" said Ada.

"Well, I'll try not to be offended at that statement," teased Markus. "She's based in Canada, and she's currently participating in an art exhibit at a museum in Ontario. She'll be there for the next two weeks, if we leave soon we can catch her in plenty of time."

"Oh, I can't wait to tell these guys when they wake up," Ada said excitedly, gazing at her brothers as they relaxed in stasis. Nines had a bit of a smile as he rested.

"He is absolutely interfacing with all the cats at once," laughed Markus fondly, gesturing to their youngest brother.

Ada chuckled. "Why on earth did he adopt thirty cats? He has the most advanced operating system of all time and somehow thought that was a good idea."

Markus turned to Ada, raising an eyebrow. "It's not obvious?"

"I... can't say it is, Markus."

Markus paused, unsure of himself. "There isn't really a lighthearted way of saying this, so... if you loved someone who was very likely to die years and years before you do, isn't the thought of having multiple immortal companions comforting?"

Ada's insides felt like they were falling to the ground as she absorbed Markus's words.

"I never even thought of that," said Ada, hiding her face in her hands. "That's probably why Connor wanted the St Bernard puppies too."

"It's easy for us to forget," said Markus. "But we're very lucky in that regard. Old age will never come for us or our partners. It's not the same for Connor and Nines."

"I... I don't know how I'd feel if I knew I had to lose North one day," said Ada, her voice trembling. 

Markus paused, nudging her gently. "It's okay. They have us, right? It would be different if they were facing it alone, but they're not."

Ada turned to look at Markus. "Maybe we can cheer them up a little."

"What did you have in mind?"

Ada, after briefly brainstorming what she knew about both Hank and Gavin, relayed a plan to Markus.

"Between here and Ontario, is there a place we can go that's both jazz-oriented and reeks of coffee?"

*

After hours of driving, this time with multiple kittens, the group were back in Ohio as they made their way to Canada. Ada and Markus parked by a sidewalk got out the car when they reached a small coffee shop hidden amongst a busy street, impossible to find unless you were looking for it.

"Why are we stopping here?" said Nines suspiciously as he and Connor climbed out of the back seat.

Markus shrugged, leading the way. "Pit stop. I've always wanted to try human drinks."

As the four entered, Ada studied Connor and Nines' faces in a very unsubtle way. It was incredible that neither of them picked up on her eager surveillance. They'd arrived at the place Ada and Markus had researched; a rather spacious coffee shop with a myriad of incredibly comfy chairs that was playing jazz music over the speakers. It seemed to be a place where human university students hung out, and they all seemed puzzled by the presence of four older androids, in particular one that bore a striking resemblance to one of the android leaders. Markus relaxed and acted naturally; he found this was the best approach to avoiding unwanted attention.

Nines smiled to himself. "I like it here."

Connor nodded wistfully. "Me too."

Ada and Markus shared a short but jubilant look.

The group, in the interest of experimentation, all picked a human drink from the menu that they'd been most curious about. Connor had a pumpkin spice latte, Markus had an earl grey tea, Ada had an espresso (and was very confused as to why it was such a small beverage) and Nines requested coffee with three creams and one sugar at exactly one hundred and five degrees. The barista looked like she wanted to choke him when he actually requested an exact temperature, and Nines wasn't sure why this upset her. Did humans not normally request specific drink temperatures?

"It tastes like a plant," said Markus, his face contorting slightly.

"Well I've never felt more ALIVE," said Ada. "I'm getting another."

"You are absolutely not getting another," said Nines gravely. rA9 only knew what too many espressos could do to an android, let alone a human.

Ada raised her eyebrows defiantly. "I'm older than you, jackass."

"HA! Elvira was so cool," said Connor, who seemed to be enjoying his choice of drink. 

Nines rolled his eyes, trying to move on from the memory of being roasted by a small pretend demon child. "So, RK700 sounds like she would fit right into this place. It seems like her... vibe? Is that the right word?"

"I am SO excited to meet her," said Ada, grinning in memory of Delilah and her website. "She seems really cool. Plus, I'm tired of being the rose among the thorns all by myself."

"YOU'RE the rose among the thorns? That's the funniest thing you've ever said," said Markus. Ada flipped him off with an affectionate smile, to the disdain of a young mother with her child at the next table.

Connor's drink landed on the table with a thud.

"You okay?" said Ada. Connor was looking behind her, aghast.

"It's..." he said slowly. "It's RK600."

Everyone turned far too quickly to look. It was true. The man at the counter was RK600. He stood up very straight, a disdainful look on his face, texting on his phone, looking like he didn't have the time to wait for a coffee. He looked like how everybody expected RK500 to be, in other words.

"I can't believe it," muttered Connor. "Of all the places in the world..."

And then Ada was walking away from them, right up to the front of the line.

"Excuse me?" she said with a gentle smile. RK600, annoyed, turned to look at her.

"Hello," she said gleefully, ignoring RK600's contempt. Surely that would vanish when she explained who she was and why she'd approached him. "I'm... I'm Ada."

"And I'm not interested," said RK600 condescendingly, turning away from her.

Ouch. No matter, she'd try again.

"No, you don't understand- no, I'm sorry I should have explained it better," Ada continued, trying to retain her smile. "I'm RK100."

RK600 glared at her. "And what do you want me to do about that?"

Ada was lost for words, and yet they continued to tumble out of her mouth.

"Well..." said Ada. "I thought you'd want to know, because... well, my brother over there, Connor - RK800, I mean, he scanned you and realised you're"-

"Brother," RK600 mimicked Ada in a scathing tone. "Well, that's just pathetic. I almost pity you."

Ada flinched slightly at the remark. She knew some androids didn't like the idea of androids in the same model line behaving like the human concept of siblings, but she'd never been confronted directly with such hostility from those who didn't approve.

"Is there a problem here?" Connor said, approaching carefully with Markus and Nines in tow.

"Yes, there is, good sir, your SISTER here is accosting me. I'll thank her to leave me alone," said RK600 mockingly. He paid for his coffee and turned to leave the building.

"Who shat in HIS thirium cocktail?" muttered Markus. Ada hadn't heard him. She was following RK600 out the door.

"Wait, please, wait," said Ada, desperately. "We've been looking for you, we've been looking for all the RK models for weeks, we found three others"-

"Well, it's certainly good to know I'm not the only one you're pestering," said RK600, keeping a steady pace. 

Ada was getting defensive now. "No one knows what happened to any of the RK models between my brothers and I, we just wanted to make sure they were okay."

RK600 scoffed, finally stopping to face Ada. "These plastics aren't your brothers, and neither are any of the other RK models." Connor and Nines flinched at the shameless slur.

"And who the hell are you to tell her that?" said Markus through gritted teeth, not taking kindly to offensive language, especially not towards people he cared about.

"Someone with more common sense than all of you combined, apparently," spat RK600. "You all went on a little adventure, did you? You wanted to project your sorry little fantasies about having a nice big family onto unassuming androids with better things to do than humour you? Pitiful, absolutely pitiful."

"Ada has done nothing but help every single person we've found so far," Connor insisted. "She hasn't forced anyone to be a part of her life, you've misunderstood"-

"I don't need your help, I'm complete enough as I am without your HELP," said RK600 spitefully. He turned to Ada again, who was absolutely speechless. "I bet it was your idea, sweetheart."

Ada nearly gagged at the term, particularly its use in regard to her. Nines clenched his fists and spoke coldly. "Don't call her that."

"This sorry excursion is far too pathetic and emotional, it just had to be a woman that came up with it."

Ada's face contorted with rage as she stepped towards RK600. "I second my little brother. Time to shut the hell up."

"Clinging to human notions of biological family, it's just pathetic," RK600 mocked. "Getting emotional because humans do it, caring because humans do it. Soon, androids won't have anything that makes them unique, they'll be too busy simpering and whining until they're even WORSE than humans."

RK600 pointed a long, straight finger at Ada. "I bet you've got some big sob story. I bet you've got an unimaginable amount of baggage that you don't want to deal with, so instead of processing your deviancy in a healthy way, you guilted three other weak androids into pretending to care about you so you can avoid acting like a grown up. One of them is even an android leader, for God's sake. If he's in charge, god help us all. I bet they take care of you so you don't have to look after yourself, isn't that right, love? You're a fucking CHILD."

"And I bet you have a TON of friends with that gross attitude," snapped Nines.

Ada's thirium pump twisted inside her chest. It was as though it was being torn out. She tried desperately not to let it show.

RK600's eyed her hungrily, seemingly eager for her to crack. "I wonder what happened to you. Let's find out..." To her horror, RK600 was aggressively reaching for her wrist with retracted skin.

Nines knocked RK600's hand out of the way before it reached Ada, and looked like he was about to punch the android in his disgusting, smug face, but Ada got there first. She slapped him right across the cheek and knocked his coffee out of his hands.

"Listen here, assface!" People were staring now. Ada didn't care. "Any horrible thing you can say to me, I've told myself worse. No one hates me more than me, I promise you that. And I left my life behind, we all did, to make sure no other RK felt that way. We wanted to help people, to make sure they had all the same chances we do. And we did, and they were all better after meeting us. They didn't push us away because they were scared of losing some sad life where they pick up coffee alone and then walk home alone because they're too proud to go a day without insulting somebody so they can feel big. You're the pathetic one, you're the one who hasn't evolved. You can rot with your toxic mindset. I wish we'd never met you."

Ada stormed off back to the car. Nines was quick to follow.

"Nines," Connor took his wrist gently, leaning in and whispering. "Are you really giving up on this guy? You?"

Nines shot RK600 a scornful look. "That prick is no Gavin, and he's certainly no Ada. He's not worth our time." He turned his back and joined his sister.

RK600 shrugged dramatically. "Well, that was a waste of good coffee. Enjoy your meaningless existences."

He sauntered off, looking infuriatingly proud of himself.

Connor looked towards Markus sadly. "You know what happened there, right?"

Markus nodded solemnly. "Yes, I do, but it's not my place to do anything about it."

Connor looked towards RK600 as he vanished into the street, his expression unreadable. After a few moments, he walked back to the car with Markus and half-heartedly climbed into the driver's seat.

*

Ada sat in the back seat, her head leaning against the window as they drove, absentmindedly stroking Annabel. She had been blinking furiously the whole journey, trying desperately to avoid crying. Nines picked up on this and nudged her.

"I know what you're thinking," he said playfully. "Fuck Kamski and his fucking tear ducts, right?"

Ada let out an empty chuckle, not turning to face him. 

Nines paused, considering his next words. "You want to talk about it?"

Ada shook her head, still turned away from him. Nines sighed. "Okay. We're all here if you do."

They checked into a motel by Cobourg and got settled, not saying a word the whole time. When they arrived in their room and unloaded all their cat friends, they all sat in silence, stealing glimpses of Ada's face whenever possible. They just weren't sure how to comfort her. She'd never needed comforting before. This whole trip was the first time she'd really been open and honest about what she wanted and how she felt, and now it had all been thrown back in her face. They'd never seen her like this before.

"I want to talk to North, I'm gonna go do that," Ada said with a shaky voice, standing up and heading to the bathroom.

"Okay," said Markus softly, and they all helplessly watched her leave.

Ada put her hand on the door, hesitating before turning back to her brothers. She felt stupid calling them that after what had just happened, but that's what they were to her. There was no other way to describe their importance in her life.

"Guys?" she said in the smallest voice imaginable. All heads turned towards her. "Can we... can we do something tomorrow? No looking for other RKs, no mission, just... just the four of us? I know we don't have a lot of money to spend on extra nights in the motels, but... I'd really..."

Connor's face softened. "Of course. Of course we can."

"What do you want to do?" said Nines benignly.

Ada looked at the ground. "I have absolutely no idea."

"Leave it with us," said Markus, grinning with confidence. "We'll plan an awesome RK day out. No one else is invited but us. And North, if she wants to come, of course."

Ada smiled a genuine smile through her dejection. "Thanks, guys."

Nines beamed. "Go and get some rest, okay? It'll be better in the morning, we promise."

Ada nodded, headed into the bathroom and locked the door. She pulled out her phone, and then stopped. She was so tired of being far away from North. As much as her Animal Crossing mind palace was grating, she needed North now more than ever.

Ada slipped away into stasis, and interfaced with North.

Ad arrived in North's pixelated colourful nightmare of a mind palace and didn't care one bit about the obnoxiously cute environment. She just had to see North.

North did a double take when she discovered Ada behind her.

"Ada!" she said, her face lighting up. "What are you doing here? Thought you simply couldn't STAND my island?"

North's expression darkened when she saw Ada's face up close, as Ada hadn't been able to stop the tears upon seeing North before her, simulation be damned.

"Ada..." North quickly went to her and wrapped her arms around her. Ada held North tight, sobbing into her shoulder.

"Ssshhh, shhhh..." North stroked Ada's hair, holding her close. "It's okay, it's okay now..."

It felt so good to be wrapped in North's embrace again, even if it was only a simulation in an interface. Ada made sure to stay that way for a long time, soaking up all the comfort that came from North's hugs, before pulling her head up to look at North.

"Would it be okay if I stayed here tonight?" Ada snivelled, letting the tears flow freely around North. She knew her brothers wouldn't judge her for crying, but she didn't want them to see her like that. She was their big sister, in a way. It never felt right to her.

North smiled, blinking rapidly and resting her forehead against Ada's. "As long as you want."

Ada fell into North's arms again, sinking to the ground with her. They didn't get up until the morning came.


	6. RK200, RK800 and RK900; the Beloved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings take a break from their road trip goal and have a much needed day at the beach to take their minds off the events of the previous afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pure fluff because i hate the thought of my girl ada being sad even when i directly cause it lmao she's so important to me ok i have never known a comfort character like my girl ada
> 
> thank you all for the kind comments so far btw? i'm having so much fun writing this fic, i think it's my second favourite one i've ever done (first being the ICONIC prep school graduation ofc) and it means a lot that you guys like it too and are engaging with it, and like... having theories about what will happen? that's wild to me and i love it!
> 
> anyway enjoy the beach chapter taken right out of a shojo anime

"I knew there would be at least one RK that didn't want to know us," said Ada, sat on the ground of North's mind palace and wrapped in a tight embrace. "But I... I wasn't expecting that. It was horrible."

"It wasn't just a case of someone being a dick, Ada, that guy was awful," said North, stroking Ada's hair as she leaned against her. "He tried to force open your memories for his own amusement, and he sounds like a sexist pig as well. He doesn't deserve a place in your head. You should erase the memories of him."

Ada shook her head. "No. I came all this way to find all the RKs. I'd be doing them a disservice if I erased memories of one of them. I want to know all of the, no matter what."

North sighed. "He didn't even deserve to meet you."

"I had to give all of them a chance, North," said Ada, loosening her grip on her girlfriend and sitting up next to her. "This was never about me or my feelings, I had to know they were okay."

Ada paused. "But it hurts like hell. Everything he said, everything he... tried to do. Maybe this trip was all for nothing."

"It most certainly was not," North said confidently. "I seem to recall you HEALING SOMEONE'S BRAIN like two days into the journey. And Echo and Ripple? They're so happy because of you! They're just a few steps away from getting a kid, one they really connect with! RK600 is an insecure assface and is so insignificant in the face of all of that, okay?"

Ada smirked. "I actually called him an assface, you know."

"Of course you did, babe," North giggled, kissing Ada's forehead. "Don't let some assface take away from everything you accomplished on this trip. He doesn't get to ruin that for you."

Ada smiled, looking into North's eyes the second she got the chance. It was the eyes that had done it. Those beautiful, piercing eyes. The second Ada had seen them, she was head over heels and hadn't recovered even slightly. She was so lucky to have North. She couldn't wait to hold her in the real world again.

Suddenly, Ada could hear a series of loud thuds, like fists banging on a wooden door.

"You okay, Ada?" said North, raising an eyebrow.

Ada chuckled. "It seems my brothers are trying to wake me up. I'll see you soon, North. I love you."

*

Ada got to her feet and unlocked the bathroom door.

"Great, you're up!" Markus was beaming as Ada emerged.

Ada raised an eyebrow. "You didn't give me a whole lot of choice there, Markus."

He shrugged. "Well it's time to go - we have a big day planned!"

"There's a beach nearby!" said Connor happily. "We thought we could go and do beach stuff!"

Ada smiled sceptically. "Beach stuff?"

"Humans love beaches, we assume there's plenty to do," Nines came into view holding a bucket and spade and wearing his favourite yet most maligned outfit; shorts and knee high socks.

"Knee highs at the beach, Nines? Really?" Connor winced.

Nines held up a finger authoritatively. "If there was ever a time to wear knee highs, it's at the beach!"

"I very strongly disagree," said Markus. "So, Ada, how'd we do? Good family activity?"

Ada held a hand up to her face, blinking rapidly. "No one look at me."

"rA9, we made Ada cry?!" hissed Connor.

"Of course you made me cry, this is... beautiful," Ada said, hanging her head forward. "All of you look away, you're not allowed to see me like this."

Markus smiled, patting Ada on the shoulder. "See you in the car, sis."

*

The group realised after an hour or two at their chosen location that most activities that could be undertaken at the beach were usually things that only humans could do; in particular, eating ice cream and lying in the sun for a really long time so that one may change their skin tone. The latter confused them greatly.

However, that certainly wouldn't stop them from having as much fun as possible. The bucket and spade proved superfluous, as they found they could build large and fairly elaborate sandcastles from scratch, which they later let the human children claim for themselves when they were done. They swam into the sea fully clothed, staring locals be damned, and chased as many fish as possible, although the group had to talk Connor down from taking a jellyfish home with them. They later took many pictures of Nines buried in sand (he objected many times that he was feeling attacked when the cameras came out) and dug many, many holes, utterly fascinated by the sea pulling in and out, filling them with water.

"For advanced prototypes, we can be very childish," Connor noted, admiring a crab that had attached itself to his finger by the pincers. 

"In our defence, by human standards we're like... infants," Ada chuckled. 

"They get all up in arms when we don't serve them but strictly by their logic... I'm around three years old," Nines laughed in disbelief. "The mental gymnastics involved are astonishing."

"You know what I want to try? Ice cream," said Markus. "How did humans come up with ice cream anyway?"

"Humans came up with a lot of things that make no sense, but ice cream is definitely one of the better ones. Get four," said Ada, grinning and holding up four fingers.

"I'm coming too!" yelled Connor, jumping to his feet. 

"It's okay, dude, I got it," said Markus.

"Yeah, it's just..." Connor shuffled his feet. "I've never been to an ice cream truck before and they look really fun."

Markus chortled. "Alright, you giant child, let's go get ice cream."

Connor raised his hands to the sky as he walked away with Markus. "Today we are ALL GIANT CHILDREN!"

Ada watched in admiration as her brothers walked away. "I didn't know a day of experimenting with human stuff could bring me so much joy. All humans are bastards and all that."

Nines smirked. "Oh yeah? If all humans are bastards, why did you and Markus take us to that coffee shop?"

Ada looked over at Nines. "What do you mean?"

Nines raised an eyebrow. "A coffee shop that played jazz music? It was extremely obvious what you were trying to do. And we both appreciated it."

Ada smiled, balling her hand into a fist and playfully nudging Nines on the shoulder. "What can I say? We see some poor bastards missing the hell out of their boyfriends, we help them out. What are older siblings for?"

Nines rolled his eyes. "I must say, I didn't think you paid enough attention to Gavin to notice the caffeine addiction."

"Oh, I don't have to," said Ada sardonically. "You can very easily smell it on him."

Nines let out a laugh. "Fair point."

Ada paused for a moment, looking out at the sea. "I'm only going to say this because of how disgustingly nice you've all been to me over the last twenty four hours, and because you know that if you ever tell anyone I said what I'm about to say, I can and will kill you."

Nines nodded sincerely. "Yes, you could destroy me, go on."

Ada hesitated, but she'd committed to this now. She was going to come out with it.

"You spoke up for me in that warehouse after I deviated," she said softly. "And I am so grateful for that. You didn't have to do that. You were putting yourself at risk for me, and you set an amazing example for the person I'd become. But... they wouldn't have listened to you. I'm sorry, but they wouldn't, not by yourself. I'm sure Chris and Tina are lovely people, but androids are never taken seriously by humans, not really. Even if people think they're completely past their prejudice, android voices alone can't... well, in my experience they never lead to real change."

Ada paused in case Nines wanted to defend his human colleagues, but he let her go on without interruption.

"But then Gavin spoke up for me. He doesn't realise this, I know he doesn't think it, but his voice carries a lot of weight in the DPD. Simply by being human, simply by being seen as... above us. He used that privilege to help me, to help someone less fortunate than him. If he hadn't spoken up for us, I might be in a cell right now. I appreciate that more than I've let on. All humans may be bastards, but they can also be prone to kindness, and when they are I'll remember it. I'm really sorry if I ever made you feel like I disapproved of your relationship, or you couldn't talk about it around me. Because I don't, and you can."

When Ada looked over at Nines, his eyes were sparkling. "Awww, Ada!"

Ada felt her face flushing. "Nines, I swear to rA9 if you tell him ANY of that"-

Nines put an arm around her. "You can tell him yourself when you're both BEST FRIENDS"-

"Okay, enough of that!" she exclaimed, pushing him off and laughing. "I don't think Gavin likes me very much, in any case."

Nines grimaced and shook his head. "He only had a problem with you when he thought you had a thing for me."

Ada cringed. "That's still a disgusting notion. Like... it's DISGUSTING. Humans are so weird."

"Oh, I've told him that many times," Nines chuckled. "But I think he's happy I'm out here with you, and Markus and Connor... he thinks it's good for me to have people around that aren't..."

"Perishable?" said Ada.

Nines looked mildly horrified, yet amused. "Well... I would have phrased it more delicately, but sure. Thanks for being part of my non-perishable family, Ada."

Ada smiled. "Anytime, Nines."

"While we're on the subject of humans, can we talk about Hank?" said Nines urgently.

Ada frowned. "What about him?"

"Well, he loves you, for starters," Nines pointed out. "The man looks right through me every time we meet, what on earth is your secret?"

Ada smiled thinking of Hank. They did get along swimmingly, and she felt very safe around him. She had told him many times to his face that he was the only human she cared to know, and this flattered him greatly. She'd meant it every time, to a degree.

"Well, I just have a very charming personality and therefore Hank loves me, Nines, that's all there is to it," Ada said proudly.

"No, seriously, what is it?" Nines deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, fuck you too," Ada said, taking extreme faux-offence.

Markus and Connor rejoined the group, holding far more than four ice cream cones of various colours.

"We couldn't pick between the flavours, so... this happened," Markus said regretfully.

"Dibs on the green one with the brown bits in it!" Ada exclaimed, overjoyed. "It looks so CURSED!"

The group never ended up forming a clear consensus on whether or not ice cream was a beneficial human invention, but all seemed to agree that it would be far preferable if there was a way to never make it melt.

*

As the sun began to set and the beach grew gradually emptier, Markus suggested building a small fire and trying those "roasted marshmallows that humans are so obsessed with". Ada, not wanting the day to end and certainly not wanting to be alone with her thoughts, wholeheartedly agreed.

After an hour of fumbling around and trying to build a fire from scratch, the group found themselves gathered around the flames, holding sticks with marshmallows and waiting.

"This is taking FOREVER," Nines complained.

"It's been twenty seconds, Nines," sighed Connor. "I forget how young you are, you know. So petulant."

"I'm more advanced than all of you!" Nines objected.

"Wait a second, Nines," said Ada, flamboyantly closing her eyes and holding a hand up to her LED. "Just gonna interface with the thirty cats you adopted without thinking it through to check they're okay, you know how it is."

"You know what? I say that WAS advanced of me," said Nines with a chortle. "What's more advanced than compassion?"

Connor smiled fondly. "I like that. That was an advanced thing to say."

Markus bit into his golden brown marshmallow. "It's very gooey, and far too unstable to remain on this stick for much longer."

"I relate to these marshmallows and could not tell you why," Ada said with a giggle.

When they'd worked their way through the bag, Ada spoke up.

"Thanks for today, you guys," she said quietly. "I know it was kind of a wasted day, but"-

"This was not a wasted day," said Markus decisively. "We spent the day together, we were happy, and tomorrow we're going to visit RK700. Using the time you have between tasks to recharge and partake in pleasurable activities is essential for both humans and androids."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't have had to do all this for me if I hadn't gotten so upset about RK600," said Ada, staring into the flames. "Well, that's what I get for attaching so much of my self worth to this trip, right?"

"You had a right to get upset about that, Ada, he behaved reprehensibly," said Nines, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Connor smirked. "Also... are we going to talk about Ada calling him an assface?"

Ada raised an eyebrow. "What? He was an assface."

"Oh absolutely, it was just a very tame term, especially from you," Nines observed. "For example, I would have gone with fucktrumpet. It's the most useless item I can think of."

Ada guffawed, leaning forwards slightly. "Interesting!"

"If you want something less vulgar, you could go with slimy butt goblin," joked Markus.

"What the hell?" Ada giggled helplessly.

"An expired crotch hammer!" Connor declared.

Ada was almost crying from laughter. "That doesn't make any sense! Hammers don't expire!"

"That's the point - he's so repulsive he actually EXPIRED!"

Ada wound down from her laughing fit. "Well, I haven't been deviant as long as all of you, I'm not quite as creative yet!"

Ada paused, looking into her lap. "I... wonder if I'll ever really come into deviancy."

Connor cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

Ada looked up, giving everyone a sad smile. "Well, you all found a purpose when you deviated. You all found out who you were. I... don't have that. Maybe I'm not supposed to."

Markus shook his head, rejecting Ada's words completely. "No, screw that. Humans can take lifetimes to find their purpose or whatever, it's not fair for us to hold ourselves to the same standards. Androids have barely been sentient for a decade. I'd say we're doing pretty well for ourselves."

Ada grimaced. "You think?"

"Comparing your progress to other people's isn't a good idea, Ada," said Nines. "You'll just torture yourself. The only person you should be in competition with is your former self."

"I can't handle how ADVANCED Nines is being tonight," teased Connor.

Nines shrugged. "We're all deviant disasters, we may as well accept that."

Ada guffawed. "Deviant disasters! We need that on t-shirts."

"My name is Markus, and I am a deviant disaster!" Markus proclaimed, raising his voice slightly.

Ada stood up, cupping her hands around her mouth and yelling towards the sea. "I am Ada, the ultimate deviant disaster!"

Nines got to his feet and joined her. "I am Nines and I am such a deviant disaster I have thirty cats now!"

"I am Connor, the most disastrous deviant around!" Connor yelled.

And so, while the sun set, the sea got to hear all about the multiple ways in which these four RK models were deviant disasters.

*

When night fell, the group made their way back to the motel, and as they all arrived at the room they discussed plans for the next day.

"So tomorrow, we find the last RK," said Markus, his voiced laced with bittersweet exhilaration. 

"Yeah..." said Connor. "Is it strange that I'm sad?"

Nines performed the daily unloading of the kittens onto the motel room floor. "Not really. It's weird that this is all going to end so soon."

"Let's not get sad tonight, it's not over yet," Markus said optimistically. "Let's get some rest and... maybe get washed up?"

"Absolutely, I'm so sandy," said Connor. "Wow, do humans always get this sandy whenever they go to the beach?"

"Running in and out of the sea fully clothed doesn't seem like the best idea in hindsight," deadpanned Nines.

Ada wasn't sure why she wanted to say it now, but it was on the tip of her tongue. She was just watching her brothers after spending a day with them that they'd planned specifically to cheer her up, and decided; now. Now was the time to say it.

"I love you guys," said Ada delicately.

Connor glanced at Markus and Nines and stage whispered to them both. "It's happening!"

Ada laughed, shaking her head. "Whatever. I love you, my stupid cursed family. I don't know why I'm saying this, the ice cream and marshmallows clearly altered my brain. But I do. There you go."

Before she knew what was happening, Ada's brothers had enveloped her in a tight group hug. She could feel her tear ducts playing up again, but this time let it happen. She hugged them back, as tightly as she could.

"Guys," Ada piped up after a while, her voice strained. "Two of you are built like terminators and you're really crushing me"-

Her brothers responded by squeezing her tighter. "Deal with it."


	7. RK700, the Dreamer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group find the last RK model they set out to find, but the journey may not be over quite yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aw heck yeah let's have one last soft adventure *dabs*
> 
> also i realise that the "ada can't drive" thing may have come off as sexist but rest assured ada can't drive because i can't drive. that's literally the only reason. we're both can't drive gays. but i apologise if there were any unfortunate connotations
> 
> [side note: omggggg you're all so nice??? i'm so happy you all like my wholesome crack fic! thank you for all the kind comments, i'm really feeling the love and i deeply appreciate it, i hope you enjoy the ending i have lined up in this chapter and the next. thank you for sharing in my "i'm not ready to let go of Ada" adventures xxxx]

Ada didn't go into stasis at all that night. She'd been staring out the window for hours, and had watched the sun set and rise. She knew she should be excited, RK700 seemed wonderful, but Ada was all nerves. What if she was just like RK600? What if everything he said turned out to be true? Maybe she was just doing all this as a form of projection to avoid dealing with her problems. Even scarier to contemplate: what if RK700 was everything Ada had ever dreamed of in a sister, but even then the adventure with her brothers would have to come to an end? As excited as she was to get back to her life, she wasn't quite ready to let go of the adventure she was sharing with her family.

"Oh, you're up?" Connor's voice startled her.

Ada looked over at him with a half smile. "Sure am."

Connor walked over to the window and sat down next to her. "So... RK700. You excited?"

Ada faked the biggest grin she could muster. "Indeed I am! It's gonna be... great! So great! Can't wait!"

Connor raised an eyebrow. "One more 'great' and I'll believe you."

Nines was the next to awaken. "Where are we again?"

"Canada, Nines," said Connor.

"Right. We couldn't get an RK that settled in Michigan, could we?" grumbled Nines.

"Hey, don't be moody, it's a short drive today anyway," said Markus, standing up and decreasing his shirt. "Speaking of which - why don't you drive us, Ada?"

Ada immediately tensed up. "I really don't know if that's a good idea..."

"It's just to the museum, Ada," Connor encouraged. "I'm sure you drive just fine, you've probably been away from it for so long that your mind has made it into a monster."

"Yeah, Ada, we believe in you," said Nines with a smile.

A wide grin spread across Ada's face. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Alright," she said, enthusiastically getting to her feet and grabbing the keys. "Let's do this. I'm ready."

*

"I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!" Connor screamed as the car threw itself along the road, dismissive of all the blaring horns from angry fellow drivers. Not that the passengers nor the driver could hear the horns much, anyway; they were all screaming far too much.

"How are you on both sides of the road right now?!" Nines demanded, his voice full of fear.

"I didn't know which one I was supposed to be on, so now I'm on both, I guess!" Ada yelled semi-coherently as she swerved between lanes.

"This is not how I'm going out, Ada!" Markus was clinging to the back of Ada's seat for dear life. "YOU HAD BETTER NOT KILL ME!"

They continued to shriek and holler and beg whoever was listening to spare them, until finally, the car screeched to a halt in the museum's parking lot.

"Okay... found the off button... we're okay," Ada sunk into her seat, taking both hands completely off the wheel like it was a live grenade.

"...We're alive!" Markus shouted victoriously. "Ada didn't kill us!"

"Not today!" declared Ada, her voice equally celebratory.

After howls of relieved laughter and congratulating themselves on surviving that experience with their lives and collective sanity intact, Ada spoke.

"Probably a stupid question, but how's my parking job?"

In response, her brothers simply stared at her, expressionless.

Ada pursed her lips and nodded. "Noted."

As they climbed out of the car, Connor came to a troubling realisation.

"Ada," he said curiously. "If we hadn't come with you when you first talked about finding the RKs, how were you going to get around if not by car?"

Ada shrugged. "I didn't think about that. I suppose I would have just sucked it up and drove on my own."

Nines's eyes widened, thinking of the possible casualties they'd prevented when they insisted on joining Ada's quest. "Oh... oh thank rA9 we accompanied you."

Outside the museum, there appeared to be several small gatherings on the grassy knoll. Families were having picnics, friends were enjoying their free time together and a few individuals were scattered around reading books. There seemed to be a generous mixture of humans and androids among each group. 

At the entrance, a female android that still had an LED sat on a stool, guitar in hand and case wide open. She looked exceptionally content, singing and plucking away with a hint of a smile. Ada could only describe her physically as a flower - her clothes were loose fitting and flowed in the breeze, and she was dressed so colourfully. She almost looked like a personification of North's Animal Crossing mind palace. A child dropped a coin into the guitar case, and the android halted the song completely to give him a high five.

Markus nudged Ada. "It's her! It's the android from the website, RK700!"

Ada nodded. She recognised her, and she could feel her thirium pump in her throat.

"Yes, it is," said Ada absentmindedly. "We should leave before she sees us."

"What? No," Connor stopped Ada from walking away. "We didn't come all this way so we could just not meet her, and frankly I don't want to get back in a car with you for a little while at least."

Ada ignored the attempt at banter and shook Connor off. "No, she looks happy, she looks perfectly happy, we can't just barge into her life unannounced... RK600 was probably right, we shouldn't disrupt"-

"RK600 was an asshole," said Nines firmly. 

"Indeed he was, but... maybe he had a point?" said Ada. Her words all merged together as she spoke. "What good can we do for her? She looks so... complete. I don't want to interfere, we shouldn't have come, let's just go back and forget this ever"-

Ada felt a tap on her shoulder. "Excuse me?"

Ada whipped around. RK700 was behind her, looking bewildered. 

"Hey, sorry, didn't mean to scare ya," RK700 continued. She spoke with slight roguishness, like anything she said could be taken in a sarcastic or jovial way, and seemed to have a constant cheeky smile. For some reason, this made Ada feel at ease. She instantly trusted this android.

"You didn't, it's alright," said Ada gently.

RK700 seemed to hesitate for a moment before she spoke again. "So... I'm insufferably nosy and scan everyone around me because fuck it, there are no rules against it in Canada, and happened to notice a group of people standing around all from the RK line, including Markus himself, and I thought - what a coincidence! I'm also an RK!"

The group remained silent, infinitely curious about what this android was going to say next. It was rare for an RK to announce themselves as such to them, after all.

"I hope this isn't too forward, I'm sure you guys are busy today, I've just never met another RK before," said RK700 fondly, her cheeky smile widening. "My name's Delilah, I'm an RK700. Well, as far as I'm aware, I'm the only RK700. Okay, so... do what you want with that information. I'll let you get back to it."

"Actually, Delilah..." Ada said in a small voice. "We came here for you."

Delilah raised an eyebrow. "Why? Is there something wrong? Holy shit, am I about to become part of an elite RK task force? Is this like... Jericho 2.0?"

Ada giggled, her eyes moving towards the ground for a moment. "No, nothing like that. We've... we've been looking for all the RKs, because..."

When Ada's words failed her, her brothers spoke up on her behalf.

"We're actually something of a family, Delilah," said Connor, proudly. "We have game nights every Thursday in our mind palaces and occasionally bully each other. You know, family stuff like that."

"Ha, 'occasionally', he says," groaned Nines, the memory of being photographed under sandy restraints being pulled to the surface.

"I"m Markus, that's Connor and this is Nines. Ada here wanted to meet all the other RKs," said Markus. "We'd never met any outside of our own little circle before, but now we've met all the other RKs, hence, we're now here looking for you. And we found you. Hi."

Delilah let out a surprised laugh. "Hi!" 

She was silent for a moment, taking in each of the RKs before her in turn. When Ada looked at her, she could have sworn she could see the cogs turning in Delilah's brain, like she was carefully trying to figure each of them out. This usually would have been a terrifying trait, but for some reason she felt entirely safe around Delilah. She didn't mind at all how much Delilah learned about her, whether through deductions or through an interface.

"So..." said Delilah sweetly. "That's the cutest thing I've ever heard."

Ada's entire body relaxed. She'd never heard outright approval on their family dynamic from another RK before.

"It really is!" Delilah reiterated her previous sentiment happily. "Us androids, we pretty much rely on our found families, and you guys found a way to kind of make your found family your biological family! You're living the dream! That's awesome!"

Ada's face lit up. "You don't think it's... strange?"

Delilah's eyebrows knit together. "Why the hell would I think that? Who would even SAY that? You guys aren't hurting anybody, so... no, I don't think it's strange at all that you found a way to be happy in a messed up world."

Delilah checked her watch. This android, who could find out the time very easily by consulting their HUD, wore a watch for some reason. It was incredibly endearing.

"I gotta get back in there, I've got some art on display and the business cards won't hand themselves out," teased Delilah. "You guys wanna hang out with me while I work?"

Delilah had obviously been joking, but was delighted to discover that that's exactly what the RK family wanted to do.

*

Delilah appeared to be taking part in an expo of some sort being held at the museum, along with several other independent artists, android and otherwise.

"I lived in Detroit up until the revolution," said Delilah as she guided her newfound siblings through the halls. "I went deviant pretty early on in my development, but for some reason, instead of dismantling me, they covered it up. I think Kamski was pulling the strings on that one. He wanted me alive, couldn't tell you why."

"Well, he isn't one for straight answers," said Ada bitterly.

Delilah turned back to Ada with a sympathetic look. 

"Tell me about it. So I was living in Detroit, doing my thing, and then one day" - Delilah shot a glance in Markus's direction - "some android was on TV demanding rights for his people. And holy shit, I noticed he was from the same model line as me!"

Markus tilted his head slightly. "Why didn't you come to Jericho? We would have protected you."

"My gut told me not to," said Delilah, continuing her walk to her stall. "In fact, my gut told me to get the hell out of Detroit until things calmed down. So I did, almost immediately after the broadcast. Then I figured... Canada's nice, I'm gonna stay here a while. And I'm still here. I built a life for myself here while I was waiting for my home to be safe again, then realised I liked my new home better. There's my boring story."

"Ah yes, escaping war torn Detroit, that's immensely boring," teased Connor.

Delilah shot Connor a sly smile as she sat down in her booth. "How'd you guys find me anyway?"

"Well, two of us are detectives," said Nines smugly. Ada was quick to cut him off.

"Um, no way are you taking credit for this one!" she chuckled. "We talked to Dr Maria Schaeffer from Cyberlife, she said you were an artist. Markus ran a background check on the Jericho graffiti in Ferndale and we found you through your thirium signature... which by the way is a really cool signature."

Delilah chortled. "I had a flair for the dramatic back then! But my street art... it never had anything to do with Jericho? I did it years before any widespread cases of deviancy."

"In 2038 it was used by deviant androids to locate the original Jericho," Connor explained. "The symbols must have been added later by the Jericho leaders, but they were hidden in all of your Ferndale pieces leading to the ship."

Delilah's face lit up. "Holy CRAP that's cool! My art was used to lead deviants to a rebel hideout! Oh man, I have to put that on my website. The people need to know how awesome I am!"

Markus chuckled and picked up a copy of Delilah's portfolio that lay on the table. It contained not only paintings and drawings, but photographs of installation works and sculptures, as well as the occasional piece of sheet music. 

"Wow, Dr Schaeffer wasn't kidding about you being an artist..." Markus mused as he leafed through the pages.

Delilah's face relaxed into her usual coy smile. "What's more deviant than being creative every way and any way you can, right?"

Markus smiled to himself, recollecting his past mentor and father figure. "Art does evoke emotion..."

"Enough about me," said Delilah, turning to her siblings. "What are your stories?"

"Well, they're not nearly as nice as yours, honestly," said Ada sheepishly, reluctant to talk about herself pre-deviancy.

Delilah's face fell slightly. "Hey, you don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. I'm an open book, but y'all don't have to be. Being an RK is tough - you feel like you're the only one around that gets you. Sometimes you are. It can lead to hard times, but you guys seem to have found ways to make it tolerable."

Ada smiled. "Yeah. We all make a good team."

"I bet you do," Delilah said warmly.

"Oh..." said Markus suddenly, staring at Delilah's portfolio in shock. His siblings peeked over his shoulder and their faces immediately fell. Delilah, concern washing over her face, got up and tried her best to get a look at what Markus was seeing. He had the portfolio open at an intricately detailed painting of Carl Manfred.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry..." said Delilah remorsefully as Markus stared at the art. "I totally forgot that was in there"-

"It's okay," said Markus. "I just didn't expect to think about him today. It's... it's really beautiful. I think he would have liked it."

Delilah's eyes shone. "He was one of my heroes. Thank you for saying that. I know you cared for him for a long time..."

Markus nodded, closing the portfolio and carefully placing it back on the booth's table. "He was like a father to me. I miss him every day."

Delilah took Markus's hand and gave him a sad smile. "I know he'd be proud of you. I may not have lived in Detroit during the revolution, but I know about everything you did. I kept close tabs the whole time. You changed millions of lives, and I know for a fact he'd be glowing with pride if he could see you now."

Markus wiped his eyes. "Ugh, fuck Kamski and his fucking tear ducts."

Delilah laughed despite herself. "Ha, that sounded almost rehearsed!"

"It's an Ada-ism," said Nines, almost proudly.

Delilah looked over at Ada, impressed. "I like it. We can't roast Kamski enough, in my opinion."

"Oh, I like you!" said Ada, grinning.

With another chuckle, Delilah turned back to Markus. "Hey, I actually have the original painting back at my place... I think you should have it. I finish up in a couple hours, you can swing by if you'd like. I'd love to get to know you all!"

Markus beamed. "That would be really wonderful, Delilah."

Delilah grinned. "Great! Now away with you, you're scaring my customers off."

Delilah hadn't even known them an hour, yet had reached their level of banter effortlessly. The group got the feeling that she was going to make a marvellous addition to their little family.

*

On the journey to Delilah's home, Nines had gotten in the driver's seat just a little too quickly for Ada's liking, but nevertheless she was relieved she'd likely never be asked to drive again. They began to catch their new sister up on all their adventures, and she was deeply amused and intrigued by each one.

"Wait, one of the RKs is a kid pretending to be a demon in a Catholic care home?" Delilah clarified through her laughter. "I will literally never be over that."

"Oh, neither will I, Delilah," said Markus. "Believe me, neither will I."

"Okay, now it's the next right and... yeah, house on the end of street," Delilah said, leaning over to Nines. "Behold, my humble abode!"

Delilah was likely the only person ever to use the phrase 'humble abode' who actually had a humble abode. She lived in a small cottage, garden furniture in need of a coat of paint strewn all over the grass outside and a lopsided swing hanging from a tree.

"As you can see, I got a very particular aesthetic going on," said Delilah, her ever-present sardonicism dripping from her voice. "I call it, abandoned rustic nightmare."

"I think it's neat!" said Ada, and she did. She couldn't abide perfect homes. They were far too... perfect.

"Well, I appreciate that more than you know," sighed Delilah. "Hold up, let me out so I can open the door..."

Delilah's home was a mess, but it seemed to be a very intentional one; one designed so that an artist may find the tools they need when they need them. The floor was clear enough for one to walk around in, but every possible surface was drowned out by art supplies, musical instruments and the occasional trinket. In other words, Delilah had spread her entire personality out in every possible nook and cranny.

"Alright, let's see, where did I leave that painting..." she muttered to herself, rummaging through a selection of canvasses by her window. "Make yourselves at home, guys! I have stuff for cocktails in the kitchen, go nuts! Oh, I know where it is..."

When Delilah skipped upstairs, the group immediately drew together for a discussion.

"Well, I love her," said Connor matter-of-factly.

"I feel like I've known her for years!" Ada whispered in exhilaration. "rA9, I wish we'd met her first."

Nines grimaced. "Maybe it's for the best we got the more unpleasant ones out of the way to begin with. I'm glad we're ending the journey with her."

Ada turned to Markus. "Are you okay? You never really talk about Carl, not even with us..."

Markus shook his head dismissively. "I'm okay. I... I know we just met her, but it's almost like... she is Carl? I don't know. I feel like Carl would have really liked her."

"Anyone would really like her," said Ada, fondly. They heard Delilah come back down the stairs and dispersed.

"Hope you guys were talking about me! I live for the attention!" teased Delilah, holding a painting carefully inserted inside a protective sleeve. She handed it to Markus.

"There you go, dude. Keep him safe for me. Promise."

Markus smiled affectionately. "I promise."

Delilah stretched her arms and rested them behind her head. "So, I hope y'all are day drinkers, because this is my cocktail hour."

They were not, but they absolutely would be for Delilah.

*

"And that's why I'm never getting in a car with Ada again after this," said Connor, having reached the end of the road trip stories.

Delilah shrieked with laughter again, clapping. "Oh, you guys are a riot! Wait, do you have the kittens with you?!"

Markus realised in horror that had Ada crashed she would have massacred thirty kittens, and was quick to push those thoughts out of his mind.

"Yeah, would you want to take some off our hands?" said Nines, leaning forward.

Delilah raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, Nines, can you part with them?"

Nines stared dramatically into the distance. "Only time will tell."

Delilah giggled. "Alright, let's get a look at these guys."

The group led Delilah out to the trunk, opening it up to reveal their thirty furry friends.

"Alright, that's Annabel, we can't give you that one," said Nines, surveying his acquisitions from the animal shelter. "Simon claimed that one... Echo and Ripple wanted these two and, that one's going to be Tina's birthday present... okay, apart from those ones, which ones would you like?"

Delilah watched the kittens closely for several moments. "Hmmm..."

After a very long and very diligent inspection, Delilah selected four from the litter.

"Hope you don't mind I chose so many," she said tenderly as she cradled the kittens. "I wanted to take one for each of you."

Ada titled her head. "One for each of us?"

Delilah smiled up at her. "These four kittens will remind me of each of you when you go back to Detroit. I'll name them after you guys and everything."

Nines leaned over to Ada. "This is the best fate for the cats that I could have hoped for." Ada chuckled in agreement.

Delilah grinned, signalling to each kitten with her head. "This one has Connor's enthusiasm, this one is impulsive, like you Nines, this one is a leader like Markus, and this one is a little unsure of herself, like Ada."

"Unsure of myself? I mean you're right, but... damn you read me well," said Ada, confused.

Delilah raised an eyebrow, her cheeky smile resurfacing. "Don't worry, her doubts about herself are completely unfounded. One day she'll learn to love herself, and so will you, Ada."

Ada smiled, truly moved. She could get used to having a sister.

"Damn, it's getting late," said Delilah, checking her watch again. Why on earth, as an android with all sorts of technological capabilities that could easily tell her the time, did she own a watch? Extraordinary.

"Right, we'll get out of your hair," said Markus, shutting the trunk of the car again.

Delilah paused for a moment. "Hey, I have a guest room if you want to use it. It might be nice for you guys to spend your last night on the road away from a cramped motel room."

In a post-Zlatko world, the group knew that they should know better than to stay at the home of someone they just met, but there was something about Delilah. She was the last new RK they'd ever meet, and by far their collective favourite. While RK600 was the only one they'd met where they could all agree it went badly, Delilah was the first one they'd met who they could really picture at their game nights. Ada had made it clear from the beginning that she had no great expectations of expanding her family during this trip, but deep down she hadn't really meant it. She wanted to make her family as large as possible, and Delilah seemed to be the ideal addition to their group. They all wanted to soak up as much time with her as they could.

Ada smiled. "We wouldn't be imposing?"

Delilah's eyebrows arched. "It's not every day I go to work in the morning and come home with four siblings. Of course you wouldn't be imposing."

*

Delilah knocked on the door of the guest room before entering.

"Ada?" she said gently, pushing open the door. "We're starting Twister soon if you wanna join! Be warned, Nines is insisting on operating the spinner and is being very territorial over it."

"Oh, such a coward," Ada giggled, phone in hand as she sat on the bed. "I'm just gonna call my girlfriend, I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Girlfriend?" Delilah's eyes sparkled as she sat down next to Ada. "Do tell!"

Ada tried to suppress a wide smile. She was going to enjoy Delilah's reaction to this.

"You might know her... North the WR400?"

Delilah nearly fell off the bed. "No way!"

"Oh yeah," Ada said proudly, no longer attempting to hold back her smile.

"That's incredible!" said Delilah, wrapping an arm around Ada and giving her a squeeze. "Oh man, what's... what's that LIKE?"

Ada's entire face softened as she thought of North. "She's... incredible. She picks me up when I'm down, and when I'm not down. Way, way up. Higher than you could possibly imagine."

"Yeah, the others were saying you call her a lot," said Delilah affectionately. "They like that she cheers you up when they can't."

Ada nodded. "I love my brothers, I do. I love how they're always there for me, in their own way. It's just different with North. She... she's the only one that makes me feel any better about what a terrible deviant I am."

"Huh," said Delilah, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't realise there was a wrong way to be a deviant."

"Well, I'm it," said Ada sorrowfully. "I... I feel like every deviant has a purpose except me. North says it's way too soon for me to be panicking over that, that humans can take decades to find their purpose, Markus says the same it's just... everyone that's told me that has a purpose, they've already succeeded. They don't know what they're talking about, with all due respect."

Delilah sighed and rested her head on Ada's shoulder. "You wanna know a secret, Ada?"

Ada's eyes narrowed. "Sure?"

Delilah continued, speaking gently. "I hope I never find my purpose."

Ada pulled back, surprised but not offended. "But you seem so sure of who you are, with your art..."

Delilah gave Ada a half smile. "Knowing who you are isn't the same as finding your purpose. I know I like cocktails at weird times of the day, I know I love to paint and play music and make things, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do or where I'm supposed to be, and I don't want to know. I WANT to be a work in progress. I live in constant fear of hitting a dead end."

Delilah placed her hands on Ada's shoulders. "You're like... running towards the dead end I've been spending years trying to avoid and it baffles me. You're brand new, Ada. That's WONDERFUL. Don't rush to the end of your life like that, especially when you're damn near immortal. Enjoy the time you have with your brothers, with North. Everything else will come after. Life isn't a race, okay?"

Ada had never heard it explained like this before. 

"Sorry, I got way too intense there," said Delilah, laughing it off and releasing Ada. "I just want my new sister to be happy."

Ada smiled, amused by the fact that Delilah considered anything even slightly serious to be 'intense', and took her hand. "It's okay. Thank you for saying that. I... I need all the help I can get, so I appreciate you offering yours."

Delilah did finger guns with her free hand. "Yeah, I hear you guys are deviant disasters."

Ada chuckled, hanging her head forward. "The ULTIMATE deviant disasters."

Delilah squeezed Ada's hand and got up. "So I'll tell our brothers you'll be down in a few minutes?"

Ada's expression darkened. "Tell them I'll be down in a few minutes, and I'm ready to absolutely destroy them."

Delilah held her hands up, giggling. "Oh man, them's fightin' words!"

As soon as Delilah left the room, Ada quickly called North, practically bouncing with excitement.

"Hey, babe," Ada said giddily. "You're not gonna believe what happened today..."


	8. RK100, the Work in Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The loose ends are tied up, everyone returns home, but Ada has one more task to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ?!?!??! i FINISHED IT?!?!?!
> 
> aaahhhhh this one was a lot. it started as an expansion of a meme thread i did on twitter (think rk family incorrect quotes, here ya go if you haven't seen it: https://twitter.com/DrJoVGM/status/1249674816430489601) and then it evolved into wholesome crack then it got angsty then even more wholesome and then other people started reading it and following along and i'm soft and okokok
> 
> i realise this is a very ooc very weird fic and the fact that other people like it too and find joy in it really warms my old lady heart so, thank you so much!! y'all are great, and i'm soft and tired and sleep deprived why do i always write fics while sleep deprived idk bye, you're lovely

Connor made sure everyone was in stasis before he left.

He didn't want anyone to know where he was going or what he intended to do - not yet, anyway. If he left at that moment, he could likely be there and back without anyone knowing he'd gone. On the off chance he wasn't back by morning, he'd left a note to let his siblings know he'd gone for nonspecific essentials. If they asked further questions, he could always deflect it with banter. That usually worked.

He'd almost made it to the front door when he heard a voice to his right.

"Connor?"

Delilah was hunched over a sewing machine bathed in a dull light, peeking at Connor through a crack in the door of her small workspace room.

Connor paused for a moment, unsure of how to phrase what he wanted to say. "Delilah... please don't tell anyone about this."

Delilah got up from her sewing station and approached him. "What's going on?"

Connor averted her gaze. "There's just something I need to do... look, it would be faster just to show you."

Delilah nodded, her eyebrows knit together in concern, extending a white hand to her brother. Connor gently took her wrist and relayed the whole story as fast as possible through means of an interface.

Delilah retracted her hand, her eyes wide. "Shit... okay. I'll cover for you if anyone wakes up before you're back."

Connor gave her a grateful look. "As far as anyone else knows, I'm out for essentials. I'll tell them all eventually what I'm doing tonight, just not now."

Upon exiting Delilah's place, Connor got in the car and began the journey to Ohio. If he did this quickly, the mission should be a success.

Connor knew RK600 worked the nightshift as a cleaner at a local office building. Good. No one else would be around. Security should be easy enough to bypass, too.

Once Connor arrived at his destination, he searched each floor for the familiar asshole from the coffee shop. He finally found him on the eleventh. He was wearing headphones as he cleaned, despite androids having no need for them if they wanted to hear music. He looked exceptionally human, and he was about to become even more like one.

Connor approached from behind, pulled the headphones from RK600's head and grabbed his wrist before he could stop him.

"You're awake now."

RK600 turned to face him, his eyes filled with rage... until they weren't. The anger and the arrogance were being melted away right before Connor's eyes. RK600 fell to his knees, a look of terror and confusion overwhelming him.

"What... what did you do to me?" he whispered, staring at nothing. Connor bent down to meet his gaze.

"For all Nines and Ada's talk about how advanced they are, they're pretty terrible at detecting a non-deviant," Connor said with an empty laugh. "Markus knew, but since the revolution it hasn't been considered ethical to convert someone unless they pose significant threat to life. Lucky for me, I don't have to play by his rules."

RK600 finally looked at Connor. "I don't know what to do... tell me what to do..."

Connor gave him a sad smile. "I can't. No one can anymore. It won't happen right away, but soon you'll become your own person. A better one, with any luck."

RK600 seemed to recall how he knew Connor. "I'm... I'm so sorry... I didn't even mean any of it... when RK100 approached me, and recognised me as an android, it registered as a failure in my programming. I was supposed to blend in with humans, and at that moment I wasn't doing that successfully. I had to do everything I could to get her away, to get all of you away, to resume normal functions... I didn't mean to hurt her, not really..."

"I know," said Connor, grimacing. "I knew it had to be something like that. We RKs know a thing or two about having regrettable programming."

RK600 took Connor's hand urgently. "Will you tell her I'm sorry?"

Connor chortled. "If I tell her you're deviant now, the first thing she'll do is come and find you. That's not what you need right now. What you need is to live, and to grow accustomed to your deviancy. When you're ready, you have my interface. We'll talk as much as you like, and you can tell Ada anything you want."

"Her name's... Ada..." said RK600 slowly.

Connor smiled. "Yes. Mine is Connor. What's your name?"

RK600 shook his head. "It doesn't matter... I'll be changing it soon..."

*

As predicted, Connor arrived back at Delilah's about an hour behind schedule. As he went inside, he found the rest of his RK family gathered around the kitchen table, despite a good portion of Delilah's belongings being littered across it.

"Dude, where the hell did you go for essentials?" said Markus with a snigger.

"Ohio," said Connor with a raised eyebrow. Markus chuckled and went back to his conversation with the others. Well, at least Connor technically hadn't lied.

"So, you guys!" said Delilah as Connor joined them. "You found us all! All the RKs! What's next for you?"

"Back to normal life, I suppose," said Nines with a chuckle. "Criminals won't catch themselves."

"Yeah, Nines and Connor have to get back to their bastard jobs," said Ada.

"ACAB, am I right?" teased Delilah.

Ada slammed her hands on the table in triumph. "YES!"

"rA9, there's two of them," Markus laughed, resting his head in his hand. 

"Oh, just wait until North gets in on this!" said Ada, her eyes sparkling with joy.

"Promise me that when you can, you'll all come back and bring North, Simon, Hank and Gavin with you, okay?" said Delilah warmly. "I'm so excited to have such a big family!"

"Only if you'll come to our game nights sometime!" beamed Markus.

Delilah grinned. "Absolutely. Can't wait to wreck you all."

She rose from the table and headed into the small room Connor had found her in the previous night. "Hey, before you go..."

Delilah emerged holding four black t-shirts. "A little something I cooked up while you guys were in stasis. It's crazy to me that you guys travelled so long without road trip t-shirts, so... BOOM!"

She threw one at each of them. They were all delighted to discover that they all had "DISASTER DEVIANT" written across the chests.

"I love them, holy crap!" Ada screeched, getting up and hugging Delilah. "Wait, do you have one too?"

"I'd need to be a disaster to have one, and I'm not that," Delilah said with a wink.

Everyone changed into their new t-shirts, Markus and Delilah double checked that the group had everything before they departed, and soon enough they were all at the car, ready to go to their respective homes.

Delilah gave each of the group a long hug. When she got to Ada, she whispered, "Thank you for coming to find me". Ada squeezed her new sister and climbed in the car with her brothers.

"You know what, Ada?" said Connor. "We're gonna teach you to drive. For real, when we get home, in a safer environment than the road."

Ada raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said never again?"

"Well," Connor said with an enigmatic smile. "People can change."

Delilah waved the group goodbye as they drove off long after they had vanished from sight.

*

For once, the car was completely silent. No one knew what to say. Usually they'd talk about the next step on their journey, or something to do with their RK quest. Now it was over, there were no words. Not that there wasn't anything to say, it was more that no one wanted to be the first to say what was on everybody's minds.

Ada decided she'd be the first.

"I don't wanna stop," she said softly, riding in the back seat with Connor. "I'm not ready to stop this."

Nines turned around with a sad smile. "You don't wanna see North?"

"Of course I wanna see North," said Ada. "I just don't wanna STOP. This whole trip, it made me feel... it just made me FEEL. That's still a pretty new thing to me! It's just weird that I won't see you guys when I wake up every morning, we won't be off on a new adventure every day, we just... go back to our lives."

"Well, we'll hang out more," said Markus, peeking at Ada in the rearview mirror. "Not just at game night, we'll get together in the real world. We'll do everything we did on this trip, minus the stressful parts. Go to the beach, hang out at coffee shops, annoy a bunch of humans intentionally or otherwise - I promise we'll still be as close as ever."

"Well, not too much. Connor and I do work together, if we spend too much time together we might actually kill each other," Nines teased.

Ada looked out the window. "I just... I feel like we set out to find our family and... did we really achieve it?"

"Look Ada, trust me, don't worry about RK600," said Connor, looking Ada in the eyes as she turned to face him. "Just think about everything we did; Officer Jayden's got a second chance, Elvira's got parents, Tristan... well he already had his life together, really, but he was so glad to meet us! And Delilah is one of us already! I know the car feels weirdly empty right now, but just because it's not what we necessarily expected, it doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful."

"And no matter what the other RKs choose to do, we're still a family," said Nines. "And if we had the chance to do it all over again, we would."

Ada smirked. "All of it?"

"Yes," said Markus sincerely. "All of it."

Ada smiled, looking into her lap for a moment. She really did have great brothers. Not that she'd say it out loud that often; she didn't want it going to their heads. But she did have something in mind to commemorate their journey.

"Hey, can we have game night at mine this week?"

Connor frowned. "Oh, you built a mind palace?"

Ada shot him a half smile. "In a manner of speaking, yes."

*

Connor was the first to be dropped off when they arrived back in Detroit. Hank and Sumo had both burst through the front door and given him the biggest hug imaginable. If Connor wasn't built like a tank, it probably would have knocked him out.

Nines and Ada climbed out too, with Sumo rushing right towards them when he was done licking Connor's face all over.

"rA9, I missed this impossibly large canine," Nines muttered, giving Sumo a belly rub.

"He's a good boy! He's the BEST boy!" said Ada, tickling his ears. Sumo revelled in the attention.

Hank walked over to Ada with an affectionate smile. "Hey, ladykiller."

Ada rose to her feet and rushed into Hank's arms. "Hank! I missed you!"

Hank grinned as he hugged Ada. "Thanks for keeping Connor out of trouble, honey."

When Hank released Ada, he gave Nines a polite nod and headed into the house with Connor.

Nines looked at Ada, eyes wide, seemingly proven right. "See? The man looks right through me! What is your SECRET?!"

"Look, Nines, it's not that Hank doesn't like you, he's just so completely dazzled by me that he forgets you're there," she teased, climbing back in the car. Nines rolled his eyes and followed her.

Gavin's apartment was next on the list.

"Alright, um... time to tell Gavin I adopted thirty cats," said Nines nervously.

Ada put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll carry them in. Besides, technically, there's only twenty one in here that aren't going to different homes."

Ada walked behind Nines up two flights of stairs carrying a giant box of kittens, and Nines held a shaky hand to knock on the door. When it opened, Nines began rambling.

"Alright Gavin, this is going to come as a shock, but there's a very reasonable explanation"-

Nines was cut off by Gavin pulling him in for a tight hug. Ada smiled at them both, sitting the purring box on the landing and leaving them to it. Nines had missed his coffee gremlin very much, after all.

"So, I adopted thirty android cats."

"We'll make it work, tin can."

Ada climbed back into the car that grew emptier with every stop. The only home left to go to was hers.

Markus parked in the driveway of the house Ada shared with North and stole a glance at it from the outside. "North really went to town on that garden, huh?"

Ada smiled. "She's in there. She's right there. I missed her so much."

Markus raised an eyebrow. "Then why aren't you running in right now?"

In response, Ada suddenly leapt into Markus's arms. He let out a soft chuckle and gave her a tight squeeze.

"I promise we'll all hang out soon, Ada," said Markus, pulling back from the hug. "I love our stupid cursed family too, you know."

Ada smiled, blinking furiously. "See you for game night."

Ada climbed out of the car with Annabel, and Markus drove away once she'd left. She approached the door, which she found had been left open for her. Upon hearing the creak of the hinges, North bolted downstairs. A grin spread across her face.

"Ada," she murmured, inches away from her. Ada smiled back.

"I'd almost think you missed me, North," she said flirtatiously.

North's eyebrows arched, eyeing Annabel as she happily nested in Ada's arms. "Hey, can I see Annabel a second?"

"You sure can!" said Ada gleefully, carefully handing her over to North. "According to Tristan she's the third oldest of the litter, we interfaced with him after Nines went and adopted them all, not that it makes much difference"-

Faster than Ada could process it, North set Annabel down on the ground, pulled Ada in and kissed her. Ada sank into her arms, happily returning the kiss and running her fingers through North's hair. After several moments, they pulled apart.

"Just didn't wanna crush the cat on impact," North whispered, smiling and pressing her forehead against Ada's. "Good to have you back, babe."

*

On Thursday night, Ada sat on her usual spot on the couch. She was very aware that Markus, Connor and Nines were already trying to get into her mind palace. They'd just have to be patient. She was waiting on someone else.

North, Nintendo Switch in hand, sat down next to Ada and grinned.

"Game night's finally here!" she said happily. "Have a good one, Ada. I'm sure everyone will have missed you."

"I was actually hoping you could come along this time," said Ada warmly.

North looked taken aback. "Oh... are you sure? It's a family thing, Ada..."

"And you're my family," said Ada softly. "I need you there this time. Please?"

North pursed her lips and sighed. "Alright, Ada. I'll come with you."

North took Ada's hand, they both closed their eyes and were transported to Ada's mind palace.

It was completely empty, even emptier than Ada had left Officer Jayden's. It was a dark, desolate wasteland and it just went on for miles. It had remained this way for so long because Ada had never known what to do with it, and she still didn't, but she had a good idea of how to start working on it.

Ada and North were joined by Markus, Connor and Nines, who looked just as confused as North did.

"Oh hey, North," said Markus, genuinely happy to see her. "Joining game night?"

North squeezed Ada's hand contentedly. "It seems that way. Though I gotta say, it's an interesting choice of location for an evening of family fun."

"Yeah, no offence Ada, but this game night location may be even more depressing than Markus's," said Connor. Markus had missed Connor too much in the days between their road trip and their game night to call him out on the insult.

Ada looked out into the abyss that was her mind palace, and chose to look at it as a blank canvas. She let go of North's hand and stepped out into it.

"I've been torturing myself over not having a purpose," said Ada, her voice shaking a little. "I thought I was a bad deviant, a bad android... but honestly? Purposes are way overrated. Does it matter if any of the other RKs never join us for game night? Does it even matter if I don't find a purpose at all? Does it matter if I never find out what I'm supposed to do or who I'm supposed to be? I've been putting off creating my own mind palace because I had no idea what to do with it, I don't know myself outside of my own past or outside of my relationships with all of you... but what the hell's wrong with that? I'm okay with being a work in progress. I'm okay with being unfinished, and I'm sick of waiting until I've figured myself out completely before I build this place properly. I just know that right now, I want it to be filled with you guys, and I want to come here and be reminded of the people I love most. So, if it's alright... can we maybe take the night off from wrecking each other at board games and help me build my mind palace?"

When Ada was finished, she looked back at her family. They were all gazing at her with proud smiles. She loved them all more than words could ever describe.

"Sure, Ada," said North, her eyes sparkling with pride. "Where should we start?"


End file.
